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For image info, go to https://thediplomat.com/2024/02/malaysia-confirms-royal-pardon-for-jailed-former-pm-najib-razak/
See how shameless is the world’s No. 1 kleptocrat Najib ‘1MDB’ Razak
KUALA LUMPUR, April 3, 2024: The disgraced and shameless former premier Najib “1MDB” Razak is now demanding to be placed under house arrest.
That is as good as being freed. Can we label this as “backdoor freedom”?
What are the chances of it happening? Given the Anwar Ibrahim-led so-called Madani Unity Government’s support for elite super kleptocrats, it will not be a surprise to Malaysians if/when Najib is “freed”.
On Jan 31, the Pardon’s Board, with the support of the Government, gave Najib a 50% discount on his jail sentce - from 12 years six years and a hefty cut from his court fine of RM210 million to RM50 million!
No News Is Bad News reproduces below a news report on jailbird Najib’s demand:
Najib wants govt to produce ‘supplementary decree’ allowing house arrest
-03 Apr 2024, 03:20 PM
Najib Razak claims the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong issued the decree during the Federal Territories Pardons Board’s meeting on Jan 29.
Former prime minister Najib Razak is currently serving his sentence at Kajang prison and is to be released on Aug 23, 2028. (Bernama pic)
KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Najib Razak has filed an application at the High Court to compel the government to produce a purported “supplementary decree” from the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong which allows him to serve his sentence under house arrest.
On Feb 2, the Federal Territories Pardons Board halved Najib’s prison sentence in his SRC International case from 12 years to six and reduced his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.
Najib, 70, is currently serving his sentence at Kajang prison and is to be released on Aug 23, 2028.
In his application filed on April 1, Najib claimed that the then Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, had issued the “supplementary decree” during the board’s meeting on Jan 29, a day before his term ended.
“However, the ‘addendum order’ (supplementary decree) was not announced by the board on Feb 2,” Najib alleged.
He said his lawyers had written to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, and law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said to confirm whether the supplementary decree existed.
“The requests went unanswered,” Najib claimed.
“The respondents’ failure to confirm the existence of the supplementary decree and the applicant’s (Najib) request to be served with it, along with the subsequent inaction by the prisons department to execute the said decree, is irrational.”
Najib also alleged that the government was in contempt for not executing the supplementary decree.
The former Umno president also wants the Kuala Lumpur High Court to compel the government to execute the supplementary decree – if it is true – to place him under house arrest.
Justice Amarjeet Singh is set to hear his application to commence the legal challenge tomorrow.
Each state has its own pardons board which is appointed by the respective sultan or governor. The only exception is the federal territories, where members are appointed by the king.
The Federal Territories Pardons Board is headed by the king and consists of five members – the attorney-general, federal territories minister and a maximum of three others appointed by the king.
Najib, who has three other criminal cases which are ongoing, began his initial 12-year prison term on Aug 23, 2022 following the Federal Court’s dismissal of his final appeal.
He was tried before Justice Nazlan Ghazali (now a Court of Appeal judge) in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on seven counts of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust involving RM42 million in funds belonging to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.
On July 28, 2020, he was convicted on all counts and sentenced to a 12-year jail term on each charge. Nazlan ordered that the jail terms run concurrently.
Najib’s conviction and sentence were subsequently affirmed by the Court of Appeal on Dec 8, 2021.
On Aug 23 the following year, a five-member panel of the Federal Court, chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, dismissed his final appeal. The apex court also ordered Najib to begin his term of imprisonment immediately.
MALAYSIA
Fahmi: Cabinet did not discuss Najib’s house arrest claims
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, who is the spokesman for the unity government confirmed this with the media.
Updated 1 minute ago · Published on 03 Apr 2024 6:43PM
Fahmi said the Cabinet also took note of the meeting between Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim and KK Mart founder Chai Kee Kan. - The Vibes, April 3, 2024
THERE were no discussions in Cabinet today on claims by former prime minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak regarding a purported “supplementary order” from the previous Yang diPertuan Agong dated Jan 29, 2024.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, who is the spokesman for the unity government confirmed this with the media.
"No such claims were discussed in our Cabinet meeting today," he said.
Najib had earlier claimed that Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah issued the order during a meeting of the board, for the former to serve the remainder of his reduced sentence under house arrest.
If the order existed, it would have compelled the government to release him from the Kajang Prison to his known residence in Kuala Lumpur.
The application was filed by his solicitor Messrs Shafee & Co on Monday.
The former premier claimed that the supplementary order or Addendum Order was omitted when his partial pardon was announced on February 2.
On another matter, Fahmi said the Cabinet also took note of the meeting between Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim and KK Mart founder Chai Kee Kan.
Chai, also known as KK Chai, took the opportunity to apologise to the king and all Muslims for the convenience store’s sale of the socks during the audience, which lasted 15 minutes.
The convenience store chain has been under the spotlight after socks bearing the word “Allah” were found being sold at one of its outlets in Bandar Sunway.
“All parties must be more responsible. Don’t let this incident repeat, and I hope that this will be my last time stressing on the matter,” decreed the king, according to the Royal Press Office in a statement that was posted on Sultan Ibrahim’s Facebook page.
Fahmi said the Cabinet is in line with Sultan Ibrahim who decreed that enforcement should be emphasised and given priority in the issue.
"The Cabinet also took note of the posting on Sultan Ibrahim's Facebook and thanked him for agreeing to meet the KK Mart founder involved.
"The Cabinet also agrees that enforcement needs to be emphasised and takes note that action needs to be taken to deal with those who try to incite the people," he said. - The Vibes, April 3, 2024
Tuesday 2 April 2024
US$1.8b (RM8.5b) 1MDB fraud hearing begins in Switzerland
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US$1.8b (RM8.5b) 1MDB fraud hearing begins in Switzerland
KUALA LUMPUR, April 3, 2024: All over the world, those suspected of laundering 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds are being charged and some have been found guilty and jailed.
However, in Malaysia where the world’s biggest kleptocrat, the disgraced and shameless former premier Najib “1MDB” Razak who controlled 1MDB, is jailed but given special VVIP treatment.
The corrupt former Umno president is also given a 50% discount on his 12-year jail sentence and his RM120 million court fine was given a hefty cut to only RM50 million. And he is still facing multiple charges of stealing from 1MDB.
That is how the so-called Madani Unity Government supports and promotes the super elite corrupt/kleptocrats in Malaysia.
And the US$1.8 billion (RM8.5 billion) 1MDB fraud hearing begins in Switzerland!
No News Is Bad News reproduces below an AFP report on the trial:
Trial over US$1.8bil 1MDB fraud opens in Switzerland
-03 Apr 2024, 12:01 AM
Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony are accused of involvement in the vast embezzlement operation orchestrated by Jho Low.
Tarek Obaid (left) and Patrick Mahony will claim trial to embezzlement and laundering US$1.8 billion of 1MDB funds, their lawyers have indicated.
BELLINZONA: Two men accused of embezzling US$1.8 billion from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB went on trial in Switzerland on Tuesday, the latest hearings stemming from the vast multi-billion-dollar financial scandal.
Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony will plead not guilty, their lawyers have indicated.
They are accused by Swiss state prosecutors of involvement in the vast embezzlement operation orchestrated by Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, an adviser to former prime minister Najib Razak.
It is alleged that billions of dollars were pilfered from the fund by a number of people and used to buy items ranging from artwork to a superyacht.
Najib was sentenced in 2022 to 12 years in prison for offences linked to the misuse of public money in the 1MDB financial scandal. In February, his sentence was halved to six years.
The latest trial, which is due to last throughout April, is being held at the Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland in the southern city of Bellinzona.
The case is being heard by three judges. Lawyers for one of the accused today asked for the president of the court to recuse himself from the case, believing that the judge had accepted the prosecution’s thesis, and thereby cast into doubt his ability to conduct proceedings impartially, Switzerland’s Keystone-ATS domestic news agency reported.
According to the original indictment, “the two accused are alleged, with the aim of enriching themselves and others, to have misappropriated at least US$1.8 billion”, transferred by 1MDB in connection with a joint venture with the Saudi oil exploration and production company PetroSaudi, “and then to have laundered the amounts involved”.
“The allegations cover a period at least from 2009 to 2015 and constitute the offences of fraud on a commercial basis, aggravated criminal mismanagement, and aggravated money laundering.”
Obaid is a Swiss-Saudi dual national, while Mahony is a Swiss-British dual national.
‘Lavish lifestyle’
“The two accused used money misappropriated from 1MDB to acquire, among other assets, real estate in Switzerland and in London, jewellery, private equity, to develop PetroSaudi activities from which they received substantial income, and to maintain a lavish lifestyle,” the indictment said.
The Swiss public prosecution bureau thanked their counterparts in the United States, Malaysia, the UK, Singapore, Jersey, Canada and Barbados for their cooperation.
According to Mahony’s lawyers Maurice Harari and Laurent Baeriswyl, quoted in the Tribune de Geneve newspaper, the “verbose indictment… is the culmination of a totally biased and incomplete investigation”.
In 2005, Obaid served as a private adviser to the Saudi monarchy, the Swiss newspaper Le Temps wrote in a long investigation published in 2018.
PetroSaudi was based within the royal palace and the implicit guarantee of the crown opened doors in the oil world. In 2009, Obaid approached Najib, who became Malaysia’s prime minister that year.
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