PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Razak will have to stay in prison – at least until the Pardons Board meets again.
The board has deferred the former prime minister’s pardon application to a future meeting.
The decision to defer was made at the 63rd meeting of the Pardons Board for the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya, which was held in Putrajaya yesterday.
The Prime Minister’s Department’s Legal Affairs Division said the board had agreed to defer Najib’s application to a future meeting.
At the same meeting, His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, consented to the release of 65 other prisoners.
All non-Malaysian prisoners released under the decision must be deported and returned to their respective countries within six months of their release, the division said in a statement.
It was earlier reported that Najib’s house arrest application would be among the issues raised.
The 73-year-old former prime minister was convicted of misappropriating RM42mil belonging to SRC International and sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with a RM210mil fine.
He began serving his sentence at Kajang Prison on Aug 23, 2022.
The Pardons Board subsequently halved his prison term to six years and reduced the fine to RM50mil.
On Dec 22, then High Court judge Justice Alice Loke, now a Court of Appeal judge, dismissed Najib’s application to serve the remainder of his reduced sentence under house arrest.
Najib later withdrew his appeal.
