THE royal pardon of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has been accepted by the Pardons Board today, Istana Negara said in a statement.

Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz, a palace spokesman, said in accordance with Article 42 of the federal constitution, Anwar has been fully pardoned and to be released immediately.

“In accordance with Article 42 of the federal constitution under the Yang di-Pertuan Agong XV Sultan Muhammad V with the advice of the Pardons Board, Anwar Ibrahim’s full pardon has been accepted and must be released immediately,” he said in a statement today.

In 2015, Anwar was sentenced to five years’ jail for sodomy.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had expressed his willingness to grant a full and immediate pardon to Anwar.

Dressed in a suit, the former deputy prime minister left the Cheras Rehabilitation Centre at 11.30am for an audience with the Agong.

Dr Mahathir is now at Istana Negara and both leaders are expected to meet the media later today.

“He is not only physically free but also free to participate in the country’s politics as though the past conviction did not exist,” Anwar’s lawyer R. Sivarasa said at the hospital. – May 16, 2018.