DAP legal bureau chairman Ramkarpal Singh has defended the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ (AGC) position on the court order concerning Najib Razak’s house arrest, saying it does not amount to questioning the king’s prerogative to grant pardons.
The Bukit Gelugor MP agreed that the word ‘discharge’ in the High Court order could be interpreted as releasing Najib rather than transferring him to house arrest.
He said this would contradict the conditional pardon, which explicitly states that the former prime minister would serve the remainder of his SRC International jail sentence under house arrest upon payment of the RM50 million fine.
“As such, clarification of the said Order of Discharge is necessary to avoid any doubts which may arise in the enforcement of the said conditional pardon order,” he said in a statement.
Ramkarpal added that the AGC’s concerns were compounded by the fact that Najib must serve another prison sentence for his 1MDB conviction immediately after completing his SRC sentence. No stay of execution has been granted for the 1MDB sentence.
Questions over prison gazette
Although Najib’s residence has been gazetted as a prison, Ramkarpal said it remained unclear whether the gazette would apply beyond his SRC sentence, as it was issued in connection with the pardon for that case.
“In other words, it is unlikely that Najib’s residence is meant to be a prison for him to serve any other sentence apart from the SRC sentence, such as his 1MDB sentence,” he said.
AGC urged to seek clarification
Ramkarpal said the AGC was right to seek clarification from the High Court and should promptly apply for clarification or a revision of the discharge order given the urgency of the matter.
He stressed that the application would not seek to clarify the terms of the conditional pardon, which he said were clear, but to address a potential error in the discharge order concerning the administration of justice.
“Under the circumstances, I am of the opinion that the AGC is right in its view that the matter should be clarified by the High Court and an application for the said purpose or revision of the said Order of Discharge ought to be made forthwith in light of the urgency of the matter,” he said.
On Nov 6, Umno said it had settled the RM50 million fine imposed on Najib, allowing him to serve the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest.
However, the AGC called for the implementation to be deferred pending clarification of conflicting terms in the court order.
Attorney-General Dusuki Mokhtar said there were obvious errors in the order which would have been detected had the document been properly checked.
