Najib yet to receive official notice of conditional pardon, lawyer says

Former prime minister Najib Razak’s lawyer says they have yet to receive official notification of the conditional pardon allowing him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest, subject to payment of a RM50 million fine.

Shafee Abdullah said it had been a week since Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim granted the conditional pardon, but neither Najib nor the prisons department had received the notice.

“We don’t know why there is such a delay. It is not normal. We also want to know what the conditions attached to this conditional pardon are,” he told reporters after Najib’s 1MDB case management today.

Asked whether Najib could settle the RM50 million fine today, as required under the terms of the conditional pardon, Shafee insisted that his client “could not pay” the sum.

“A lot of people made sarcastic comments towards me, saying wasn’t my client the one who had billions in his account?

“Well, he received US$681 million from the Saudi royal family in 2013, but returned US$620 million,” Shafee said, pointing out that this had been disclosed during the 1MDB trial.

The lawyer also said that during civil suits related to 1MDB and SRC International, two fraud investigator witnesses were questioned on whether funds from the companies had “come back” into Najib’s accounts.

“The money never came back to his account,” Shafee added.

Asked where Najib would serve his house arrest, Shafee said: “It has always been Langgak Duta.”

He added that “a lot of reporters are camping outside the house as if he is there”.