Kuala Lumpur: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Kelantan’s Sultan Muhammad V, had described the former’s jailing as a “travesty of justice”.
Anwar told the Dewan Rakyat that he had not asked the then King for a royal pardon, but that Sultan Muhammad was the one who “took the initiative” to pardon him.
He added that the Kelantan ruler had called him when he was being treated in a rehabilitation centre while still serving his sentence.
“He told me, ‘Anwar, I will give you a full pardon because I have been following the developments of your court case, which has seen breaches in the principle of justice’,” Anwar said.
He said these “breaches” included coercing individuals into becoming witnesses or initiating investigations before a police report had been lodged.
In April 1999, Anwar was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of corruption while in August 2000, he was handed a nine-year jail term for sodomy.
In 2004, he was released after his conviction was overturned. However, he was jailed again in 2014 for sodomy before receiving a royal pardon. He was released in 2018 following PH’s success in the 14th general election (GE14).
