KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak was today allowed to respond to the Malaysian Bar's bid to challenge the Federal Territories Pardons Board's decision to reduce his prison term by half over his SRC International corruption conviction.
High Court Judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal bin Md Shahid allowed Najib's lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, to respond to the leave (permission) application by the Bar to initiate a judicial review against the Pardons Board's decision.
The judge made the decision after determining that it was a case of public interest.
The court gave the senior lawyer three weeks to file his arguments before proceedings were adjourned to Sept 18.
In the application filed on April 26, the Malaysian Bar wanted the Federal Territory Pardon's Board decision against Najib made on Jan 29 to be deemed as unlawful, unconstitutional and void.
The Malaysian Bar is also seeking a permanent injunction to restrain Najib, his servants, and agents from submitting any application for pardon until he has publicly accepted responsibility and expressed repentance for his actions.
On March 16, the motion to file the judicial review was passed during the Malaysian Bar's 78th Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The newly-elected Malaysian Bar president Mohamed Ezri Abdul Wahab said 238 members supported the motion, with one member objecting.
On Feb 2, the Federal Territories Pardons Board reduced Najib's fine as well as halved his 12-year jail term to six.
This means that the former prime minister will be released from prison on Aug 23, 2028.
Najib is currently serving a 12-year jail term after he was found guilty of one count of abuse of power over the Retirement Fund Inc's RM4 billion loan to SRC International Sdn Bhd, as well as three counts each for criminal breach of trust and abuse of power involving RM42 million of SRC funds.
He was also fined RM210 million.
SRC is a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
The sentence was meted out by the High Court on July 28, 2020.
On Oct 19 of the same year, Najib filed a petition of appeal which contained 307 grounds of appeal on why he should be freed of the charges.
On Dec 8, 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court's decision and dismissed Najib's appeal to set aside his conviction and jail sentence in the SRC case.
On Aug 23, 2022, the Federal Court upheld the conviction.
The 70-year-old former Pekan member of parliament is still facing four charges of abusing his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.