SHAH ALAM, Sept 25 - Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is currently unable to pay the RM50 million fine required for him to serve the remainder of his SRC International sentence under house arrest, according to his lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
Shafee said Najib did not have the financial means to pay the amount, which is among the conditions attached to the conditional pardon.
“As of today, Najib is unable to pay it. He cannot afford to pay it,” he told reporters after today’s court proceedings, according to media reports.
He said Najib’s bank accounts had been frozen, including an Affin Bank account which was allegedly used to receive his salary while he was prime minister and a member of Parliament.
Previously, his law firm said a significant portion of Najib’s assets, bank accounts and properties remained subject to freezing orders and government enforcement proceedings, meaning their disposal was not entirely within his control.
Shafee added that Najib had never sought public donations to pay the fine.
In a separate development, Shafee said Najib had yet to receive an official letter regarding his conditional pardon.
“The Yang di-Pertuan Agong has made the decision under his prerogative… but until today, he (Najib) has not received the letter.
“We do not know why the letter is taking so long. The Prisons Department has not received it either.”
The Prisons Department previously said it had yet to receive official notification regarding the Pardons Board’s decision to grant Najib a conditional pardon allowing him to serve the remainder of his SRC International prison sentence under house arrest, subject to the payment of a RM50 million fine.
“It is the eighth day. It is strange. This delay is affecting the legal team’s next course of action because we do not know the full conditions contained in the official document,” Shafee said.
