Questions raised over ‘leaked pardons board minutes’

PETALING JAYA: Najib Razak loyalist Eric See-To has raised questions over a purported leak of minutes of the Federal Territories Pardons Board meeting which decided to commute the prison sentence of the former prime minister.

See-To, through his “Lim Sian See” Facebook page, questioned who had been responsible for leaking on social media the purported minutes of the pardons board meeting on Jan 29 last year.

He claimed this was an attempt to show that there was no discussion about placing Najib under house arrest.

“If the document is legitimate, several conclusions can be drawn,” he said. Among them was that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had proposed a full pardon, and that this was rejected by the then attorney-general (Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh).

“It also acknowledges that Najib had made major contributions to the nation across several decades,” said See-To, who was a deputy director of Barisan Nasional strategic communications during Najib’s term of office.

Last week, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s senior political secretary Shamsul Iskandar Akin had called for the minutes of the pardons board meeting to be made public to end speculation over the full extent of the pardon granted to Najib.

However, his call was rejected by federal territories minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa, and the Prime Minister’s Department’s legal affairs division, on the ground that pardons board proceedings are an official secret.

On Feb 2 last year, the pardons board announced that Najib’s prison sentence had been halved from 12 years to six, and his fine reduced from RM210 million to RM50 million.

He is currently serving his jail sentence at Kajang prison.

Last Monday, he obtained leave to begin judicial review proceedings to compel the government to place him under house arrest in accordance with an addendum to the pardon.