Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim defended Tuesday that Malaysia’s then King Muhamad V of Kelantan granted him a royal pardon because he «felt there had been a judicial fraud» against him.
«The one who took the initiative then was the king himself,» he has defended during a speech to Parliament in which he addressed the budgets for next year. «He called me and told me that he would grant me a full pardon because the judicial proceedings against me were a clear case of fraud,» he has said.
In 2015, Anwar was sentenced to five years in prison after a federal court upheld a verdict against him in a sodomy case. He was released in 2018 after Muhamad V pardoned him.
However, Anwar has indicated that he did not even apply for a pardon and expressed that he did not agree with the court’s ruling, according to reports from ‘New Straits Times’.
His comments come after opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin addressed during Tuesday’s session an article published by Italian media alluding to Anwar’s sexuality. Hamzah called on Anwar to «do something» to stop the publication of the document, but he criticized the use of «personal issues» to attack him.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
