Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah ( photo ) has granted a royal pardon to 11 activists who were jailed for protesting against a coup in the state in 2009.

This was announced by Nashita Md Noor, the wife of Bad Latif Mansor, who is among those jailed.

"On behalf of the families of the OKZ11 (Orang kena zalim) who are still jailed behind the walls of Tapah prison, I would like to announce that they have all received royal pardons from the Perak sultan and the Perak pardons board.

"This is in conjunction with Ramadan and Aidilfitri," she said in a Facebook posting early this morning.

She added that the request for pardon was done by the jailed activists' respective wives.

Nashita said the order to free the 11 activists had already been conveyed to Tapah prison.

"But we are still waiting for word from the prison about the matter.

"They may be freed late this evening," she said.

Initally, 13 people were charged for rioting after some of the protesters hurled projectiles.

Spent 3 months in jail

They were jailed in March after the Court of Appeal upheld their conviction by the Sessions Court but reduced their jail sentence from two years to ten months each.

The High Court had acquitted three of the 13 accused and let another 10 off with only a RM5,000 fine but this was overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Only 12 actually went to jail after the Court of Appeal decision, as one had returned to Indonesia after he was acquitted by the High Court as he was a foreigner.

When contacted, Nashita told Malaysiakini that one of the 12 jailed activists, 49-year-old Mohamad Nazeer Hameed, had already received a royal pardon in conjunction with the coronation of Sultan Nazrin on May 6.

The remaining 11 only received their royal pardon this week.

The group, in February 2009, had taken part in a demonstration to block BN’s Zambry Abdul Kadir from being sworn in as Perak menteri besar at the state assembly building in Ipoh.

Began with Perak crisis

BN had snatched the state government from Pakatan Rakyat that year after then Perak’s Sultan Azlan Shah refused PAS menteri besar Nizar Jamaluddin’s request to dissolve the House.

Nizar ( photo ) was forced to make the request after three assemblypersons - two from PKR and one form DAP - quit their parties to become BN-friendly Independent reps. 

The late Sultan Azlan cited the Perak constitution to say that based on his discretion, Nizar no longer enjoyed the confidence of the House following the defections.

Nizar took the matter to court but in February 2010, the Federal Court ruled that Zambry was indeed the lawful menteri besar having been appointed after BN commanded a majority in the assembly.

Zambry is now in his second term as menteri besar after BN won Perak in the 2013 general election.