PETALING JAYA: Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan has denied reports that party leaders have given Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob an ultimatum to fulfil several demands or he will be sacked as the vice-president.
This follows reports quoting sources that Ismail had been told to remove Attorney-General Idrus Harun and Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, seek a royal pardon for Najib Razak, and call for the 15th general election (GE15).
The Umno warlords reportedly made these demands at its political bureau meeting on Wednesday, which Ismail attended.
Ahmad maintained that the reports were not true and that these demands were never made against the prime minister.
Describing it as “slander of the highest order”, he told FMT the reports were fake and ill-intentioned.
Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has called on the party’s divisional leaders to attend a special briefing on Saturday, scheduled to take place at Dewan Merdeka, World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur at 2pm.
This comes after top party leaders met division heads on Aug 22, with Sungai Besar division chief Jamal Yunos later saying 158 of the 191 division leaders are calling for GE15 to be held immediately.
Zahid had also called for calm after the Federal Court upheld Najib’s SRC International conviction and sentence.
Najib was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine of RM210 million in 2020 after he was convicted on seven charges of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust over SRC funds amounting to RM42 million.
His conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeal in December 2021 and affirmed by the Federal Court on Tuesday.
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