Give Najib his usual medication, says Zaid

PETALING JAYA: Senior lawyer Zaid Ibrahim has urged the health ministry to give former prime minister Najib Razak his usual blood pressure medication as he continues to be treated at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL).

In a video posted on Facebook, Zaid said he hoped that health minister Khairy Jamaluddin would ensure that Najib receive the best medication for his ailment.

“Don’t tell me we can’t give a former prime minister the usual medicine that he takes? There’s no need to give him the generic drug.

“Even if we were to give him a little bit of special treatment, what’s wrong with that? It’s not extraordinary (treatment).

“We must be fair to all, even prisoners, and especially if the prisoner is a former prime minister. He, too, has served the people,” said Zaid, who was briefly a part of Najib’s legal team in his final SRC International appeal.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before the KL High Court had to be postponed yesterday after the Pekan MP was admitted to HKL the day before.

His lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, told the court that the former prime minister’s blood pressure was experiencing “fluctuations” and the doctors had yet to determine the cause.

Later in the day, Khairy told a press conference that Najib was given a generic high blood pressure medication by HKL, maintaining that the formula was the same as what he had been taking previously.

Khairy said Najib used to get his medication from a private hospital, but was given the generic drug as that was what government hospitals gave.

Najib is serving his 12-year jail sentence after the Federal Court upheld his conviction in his SRC International case.