Explainer | Malaysia’s jailed ex-leader Najib Razak is seeking a royal pardon. What happens next?

Request for pardon to be deliberated by the Pardons Board which includes the king and PM Anwar Ibrahim, who has brushed aside concerns of conflict of interest

No date has been set to hear Najib’s request, which has triggered a strong public reaction and petitions urging the king to either reject or allow the pardon

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Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak at the federal court in Putrajaya in August 2022. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:36pm, 11 Apr 2023

Malaysia’s disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak is making another attempt to get out of prison, this time by seeking a royal pardon after having failed to overturn his corruption conviction at the nation’s highest court in late March.

The federal court, in a majority ruling by a five-member bench, threw out his appeal to quash his conviction for misappropriating 27 million ringgit (US$6.1 million) in funds from SRC International, a former unit of the scandal-tainted state fund 1MDB.

The decision meant that Najib, whose once-powerful Umno party suffered an unprecedented election loss in 2018 on the back of public anger over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, would have exhausted all legal avenues to set aside his conviction and would thus have to continue his 12-year jail sentence which began in August last year.

But his lawyers say that the sole dissenting opinion from the apex court bench provides strong grounds for the former prime minister to seek a pardon from the king – the only way he can get out of jail without completing his term.

Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli in his dissenting view said Najib was not given effective legal representation during his last appeal before the federal court last August.

The federal court had ruled then that the hearing must continue following an application by the former leader’s defence counsel to discharge himself on grounds that he was not ready to defend his client.

Najib’s application for a royal pardon will hinge on the dissenting opinion and state that he did not receive a fair trial as his grounds for appeal were not heard by the federal court, his lawyers have said.