KUALA LUMPUR: Controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin has claimed that the 'Dubai Move' is nothing more than a smokescreen to distract the public from issues surrounding the royal pardon application by Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Via his YouTube channel today, Raja Petra claimed that the former prime minister, who is now serving jail time for his role in the SRC International corruption trial, would likely be granted a royal pardon at the end of the month.
"All these stories, including the alleged RM1 billion or RM750 million bribe against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, are just lies and propaganda orchestrated by J-KOM (the Community Communications Department.
"Why do they (the government) need this distraction to deviate the attention of the people? All of you know about the (royal) pardon (application) by Najib.
"Najib is very likely to be granted a (royal) pardon at the end of this month," he claimed.
Raja Petra alleged that the issue surrounding the Dubai Move was necessary to distract the people and prevent the government from receiving the same backlash over Najib's pardon.
He likened it to when the government was roundly criticised after Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was granted a discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) for all his corruption charges in September last year.
The DNAA granted to Zahid generated extreme controversies... to grant Najib a pardon will compound such controversies.
"Therefore, they want the people to not think about issues related (to the royal pardon application by) Najib. They want the people to focus on issues surrounding to alleged move to topple the government... the Dubai Move...,
"We will see what happens at the end of this month," he said.
Last week, Najib's defense team had refuted a report which claimed that the Pardons Board would decide on his application for a royal pardon at the end of this month. (
Channel News Asia (CNA), in its report, had quoted a source claiming that Najib's royal pardon application is scheduled for the third week of this month and likely to see a decision being made.
Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had questioned the veracity of the report, arguing that they have not received any updates on their application as of December last year.
"Both us and our client are in the dark over the state of Najib's petition for a pardon. We are baffled as to how Channel News Asia (CNA) through their reporter Leslie Lopez are able to provide a spectacular 'news' in their article pertaining to this matter.
"The petition has been filed for more than 16 months and Najib has been in prison for a year and four months," he was quoted as saying.