Anwar’s release date could still change, says Zahid

Zahid says the sentence and release date can still change if a prisoner violates prison rules.

(FMT) – Putrajaya today confirmed that jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will be released on June 8, the date given by the Prisons Department.

In a reply to Gooi Hsiao-Leung (PKR-Alor Setar) in Dewan Rakyat, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the date of Anwar’s release is calculated based on the Prison Act 1995 and the Prisons Regulations 2000, which allow early release for Anwar after a one-third remission of his prison sentence.

But Zahid said the date could still be changed.

“The sentence and release date can still change if a prisoner violates prison rules leading to the disqualification of his remission under the Prisons Regulations,” Zahid said in his written reply.

Anwar is serving a five-year jail term after losing his appeal at the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015, to set aside his conviction on a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008.

Early this year, Prisons Department director-general Zulkifli Omar said Anwar would be released on June 8, based on the calculation of the days he spent in jail under his sentence in accordance with Section 44 of the Prison Act (1995) and Rule No. 43 (1)(a) of the Prisons Regulations.

Anwar’s actual release date falls on June 10, but as it is a Sunday and the preceding day a Saturday, he would be released two days earlier on Friday, a working day.