Ag Urged To Make Public His Advice To Pardons Board

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A criminal lawyer today called for Attorney-General Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Saleh to make public his advice to the Pardons Board concerning Najib Abdul Razak's sentence.
Speaking in a radio interview this morning, Goh Cia Yee said the attorney-general is a key figure in the Pardons Board and whose written opinion should be considered by the board.
However, he said the people have yet to know what position the top government lawyer took in the pardon application by the former prime minister.
"The AG is supposed to give written opinions to the pardons board. So actually, the written opinion of the AG should be considered as well.
"What this written opinion is, we aren't so sure," he told the podcast interview with BFM radio presenter Wong Shou Ning.
Former prime minister Najib Abdul RazakAccording to Goh, there has been no precedent of the attorney-general or the Pardons Board informing the public of the exact reasons or grounds for their decisions.
However, it could still be tested in court whether the attorney-general can be compelled to provide such reasoning to the public, he added.
"I do think that if we could test the waters, in the sense that it could be a legal precedent that needs to be set whether we could demand the AG to provide a copy of their written opinion to the public because it is of public interest.
"We would like to know what position the AG took in the Pardons Board. Although there's nothing in the law specifically that compels the AG to do so, what we could do is maybe write a letter or something.
"I mean, if the AG refuses to do so, then we could commence judicial review proceedings or whatnot to see whether there is an ability to the court to compel the AG to provide such reasoning to the public," he said.
Stand against corruption
The lawyer's view was supported by his co-panellist P Gunasegaram, who believed the reasoning behind the reduction of Najib's sentence should be revealed as it is a matter of public interest.
1MDB book author P Gunasegaram"This impacts on our stand against corruption itself.
"If you have a very corrupt prime minister who is given a pardon, what kind of a signal does it send to everybody else?" said Gunasegaram, who is the author of “1MDB The Scandal That Brought Down A Government”.
Former civil servants turned activists, G25, in a separate statement today, also called on the attorney-general to make public his advice to the Pardons Board.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court originally sentenced Najib to 12 years in prison over the RM42 million SRC International corruption case. He was also fined RM210 million.
His conviction and punishments were subsequently upheld in the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
The Pardons Board commuted his sentence when it met last Monday.
While the reduced sentence places his release date in August 2028, Najib could be released earlier on "good behaviour" in August 2026 after serving two-thirds of his sentence. - Mkini

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