Putrajaya today defended a prison visit by Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi during which he dined with jailed former leader Najib Razak, who is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.

Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the meeting was made possible due to special permission granted by the prison authorities.

He cited Prisons Regulations 2000 which allows visitations from relatives and friends of inmates subject to restrictions "except by special authority".

"The 'special authority' used all this while is from the prisons director-general or the minister," he told the media at the Parliament building today.

He said Zahid was allowed to bring special meals for Najib based on the same powers granted for special exemptions.

Zahid, who is also deputy prime minister, recently said he had spent almost two hours with Najib at Kajang Prison along with members of the Umno Supreme Council.

He also said that he had brought along some of Najib's favourite food and enjoyed it together with the former prime minister.

"We were able to eat together. After meeting for half an hour, it was only the both of us for an hour and a half," he said when wrapping up the 2023 Umno general assembly last weekend.

Second exemption for Zahid

This is the second time that Saifuddin has been involved in using his ministerial power to grant exemptions to Zahid.

In March, Saifuddin invoked his ministerial power to exempt Umno from a clause in the Societies Act, allowing the party to forego elections for the posts of president and deputy president.

Saifuddin said he used the power vested in him under Section 70 of the Societies Act, exempting the party from abiding by a provision under Section 13 of the same act.

Section 13 states that the Registrar of Societies may cancel the registration of any society if it is found to have contravened any provision of the Societies Act.

But Section 70 of the same act gives the home minister the power to exempt any society from these provisions.