Anwar finally bends and asks Pardons Board to reconsider granting petition for royal pardon

(The Star) – Former opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is mounting a bid to have the Pardons Board reconsider granting his petition for a royal pardon.

Anwar, through his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, applied to the High Court Registry on Wednesday for a judicial review to quash the Board’s decision to deny his petition.

He is also seeking an order to compel the Board to reconvene a meeting to consider the petition and tender the appropriate advice to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Alternately, Anwar is asking for an order to compel the board to advice the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to pardon and release him.

In the suit, Anwar named the Federal Territories Pardons Board, the Attorney General and the Government as defendants.

On Feb 24, Dr Wan Azizah and her children, Nurul Izzah and Nurul Nuha, submitted a petition for a royal pardon to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong over the five-year jail sentence imposed on Anwar after he was found guilty of having sodomised his former personal aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

On March 27, the Attorney General Chambers informed the family that the Board had come to a decision to dismiss their pardon.

The AG’s Chambers had referred to a letter dated March 16, in which Board stated that the sentence imposed on Anwar should be carried out.

On April 27, Anwar’s family filed a petition to the Board asking for materials on how the decision was made.

They claim no reply has been issue so far.