Aug. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Former Deputy Prime Minister and leader of Malaysia’s main party Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has launched a campaign for the clemency of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is in Kajang Prison serving a 12-year sentence for a corruption case.
“We must be ready to support the Najib pardon petition campaign,” he told hundreds of supporters at the party’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, according to the Bloomberg news agency.
Ahmad, president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party to which Najib belongs, has also called for elections to be held in the country during a briefing in Kuala Lumpur, according to the Malaysiakini news portal.
For this reason, Saarani Mohamad, a member of the UMNO, has ordered the state Liaison Board to issue a circular to collect the signatures of its members in a campaign to request his pardon in a campaign that has produced reactions in Parliament. Thus, Klang parliamentarian Charles Santiago has said that Ahmad’s initiative is just a way “to save his skin.”
The high court chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat on Tuesday dismissed the appeal filed by his legal team to overturn his conviction and upheld his 12-year sentence for corruption in the 1MDB affiliate case.
With this decision, Najib was automatically rescinded from his seat as MP for Pekan under the Federal Constitution, while also becoming the first former Prime Minister in Malaysian history to be jailed.
Najib was found guilty in 2020 for the crimes of money laundering and abuse of his functions after seizing 42 million ringgit (about 9.2 million euros) from SRC International, a subsidiary of 1MDB, a state fund created by himself. .
The case hit the media after The Wall Street Journal reported in 2015 that Najib, ousted by a coalition led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, had transferred $681 million to one of his personal accounts.
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