Malaysia PM deflects questions on opponent’s house arrest

Kuala Lumpur — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim refused to answer questions on Tuesday on the existence of a royal decree that would allegedly allow jailed former premier Najib Razak to serve his prison sentence at home.

Najib, who was prime minister between 2009 and 2018, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in August 2022, when Malaysia’s top court upheld his conviction in a corruption case linked to the multibillion-dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB.

The sentence was halved this year by a pardons board chaired by former King Al-Sultan Abdullah, shortly before his reign ended in January. Malaysia has a unique system of monarchy in which the role rotates between the country’s nine sultans every five years.

Since April, Najib has been pursuing a legal bid to compel the government to confirm the existence of and execute an “addendum order” that he said was issued by the former king alongside the pardons board’s decision, entitling him to serve the remainder of his jail term at home.

Anwar told MPs on Tuesday he was unable to answer questions on the document, citing parliamentary rules on matters being decided by courts.

He acknowledged presenting Najib’s request for a pardon to the king, saying the ex-premier had a right to be heard, but stressed he had not been present when the federal pardons board made its decision to halve Najib’s sentence.

The king and the prime minister sit on the board, though the premier can be represented instead by a federal territories minister.

“Until this case is concluded in court or the king allows for it, we cannot discuss it,” Anwar said, adding he had referred the matter to the present king, Sultan Ibrahim, for further deliberation.

Malaysia’s Court of Appeal is set to hear Najib’s request on January 6 next year, after an earlier bid was struck down by a lower tribunal in July.

Najib’s son last week filed an affidavit in court, affirming he had received a copy of the addendum from Al-Sultan Abdullah’s royal household, though his lawyers declined to disclose the document’s contents.

The legal adviser to Malaysia’s Pahang state, the home of Al-Sultan Abdullah, said on Tuesday the state palace would not issue any statement on the matter, out of respect for court proceedings, national news agency Bernama reported.

Reuters