Najib's stay of execution is irrelevant at this point

SHAH ALAM - Newly incarcerated Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s denial stay of execution is irrelevant at this point of time as he has exhausted all of his appeals.

Human Rights activist Jerald Joseph said due to the fact that he has no more appeal only means his postponement or stay of execution cannot be brought up at all.

He said no accused person has ever gotten a stay of execution after the final judgement of a final appeal.

“So, he’s not anyone special in this regard,” he said.

This view was also affirmed by experienced trial and appellate lawyer Lim Wei Jiet.

He said it will be hard for Najib to argue for a basis for a stay of execution as no appeals are left to be made.

“Since this is already the final appeal before the highest court and there are no appeals left then it is very hard to argue for the basis of a stay (of execution) just because the review is being filed.

“I think the judges were right to deny the stay (of execution) and ordered for his sentence to be carried out,” he said.

Lim said in order for a stay of execution to be granted, there needs to be some sort of a pending status in the appeal.

He cited Najib’s High Court trial where he was granted a stay of execution and was not sentenced to jail.

Similar to when his charge was affirmed in the Court of Appeal, he said Najib also applied for a stay of execution thus there was a pending appeal to the Federal Court.

“As long as there’s something pending appeal-wise, then the court will give some benefit of the doubt and say you know, ‘you don’t go to jail yet’ but since we’re already at the final stage of the law then there’s no basis for any stay (of execution) anymore,” he said.

In Najib’s current circumstances, both believed that this matter was not a matter of fairness but the law stated so.

Several people had voiced out the alleged unfairness for not allowing a stay of execution for Najib with some criticising human rights activist for their deafening silence on this.

The Federal Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction and sentence of 12 years in prison and a fine of RM210 million against Najib for the misappropriation of RM42 million in funds belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.