Bar chief should go back to law school, says Najib’s lawyer
Published on: Wednesday, February 07, 2024
By:
FMT, Ainin Wan Salleh
Lawyer Shafee Abdullah said Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah does not understand the Federal Constitution.
Kuala Lumpur: Najib Razak’s lawyer Shafee Abdullah has hit out at Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah over her assertion that the King can only grant pardons on the advice of the Federal Territories Pardons Board (FTPB).
Shafee maintained that the authority to grant pardons was solely the King’s and that he had absolute discretion on such decisions.
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“(Cheah) said, no, (the King) must listen to all four (non-permanent members of the Pardons Board).
“She should go back to law school because she does not understand the law or Federal Constitution,” he told a press conference at the court complex here.
In an earlier statement, Cheah had expressed disappointment over the FTPB’s decision to remit Najib’s sentence, asking if the exercise of mercy had robbed the nation of justice.
She said it was the Bar’s position that under the Federal Constitution, the exercise of the power to grant pardons vested in the King must be exercised on advice, and that the King shall accept in accordance with such advice.
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The Bar president also said the fact that the Prime Minister’s Department had issued the statement on the commuted sentence was “rather telling” of the executive’s role in the matter.
Shafee also highlighted what he described as discrepancies in the press release issued by the Pardons Board’s secretariat, which stated that Najib would be given a 50% reduction of his jail term and fine.
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“This is a very clumsy sentence, not by the King, but by the secretariat or whoever drafted it. Somebody didn’t do the arithmetic,” he said.
“But the worse thing is that this document seems to suggest that it was the Pardons Board that made the decision, not the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.”
He said the wording of the document suggested that the FTPB had “listened to their own advice” in deciding to commute Najib’s sentence.
On Feb 2, the FTPB announced a reduction of Najib’s prison sentence in the SRC International case from 12 years to six.
His fine was also reduced from RM210 million to RM50 million, but with an additional year added to the sentence if he failed to pay the amount.
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