Bid for royal pardon for Najib draws pushback

Supporters of jailed former prime minister Najib Razak are pushing to get him a royal pardon.

Around 300 of them turned up outside Malaysia's national palace in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, and presented a memorandum to the King, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah.

The move for a pardon came less than 24 hours after Najib entered Kajang Prison at the edge of Kuala Lumpur, after Malaysia's apex court upheld his graft conviction.

The move drew pushback from civil society members.

Electoral watchdog Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections has launched a petition urging the King not to grant Najib a royal pardon.

The petition had garnered over 65,000 signatures by about 10.45pm yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian police have denied rumours that Najib would be given special treatment in prison.

The police posted a viral photo on Facebook, supposedly showing Najib's spacious jail cell with a TV, shelves, three beds and a table. The photo was captioned "stop the spread of fake information".

As for the former premier, he has four more pending court cases to face in the coming weeks.

These involve money laundering and criminal breach of trust. He also faces charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion (S$717 million) from state fund 1MDB.