Malaysia's national palace issued a statement on Saturday emphasizing that the royal decision permitting former Prime Minister Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest is both clear and binding. The palace warned that any attempts to challenge the order would be seen as a direct act of defiance against the king.
This declaration followed an intervention by the attorney general on Friday, who temporarily blocked Najib’s transfer from prison, citing a need for further legal clarification. Najib had briefly left prison earlier that day after his political party fulfilled the 50 million ringgit ($12.3 million) fine mandated by the terms of a royal pardon. However, he was returned to custody just hours later following the attorney general's office's move.
Najib has been incarcerated since August 2022, following the finalization of his conviction in his first graft trial related to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB state investment fund scandal. In September, the king granted Najib a conditional pardon, which stipulated that he could serve the remainder of his sentence at home upon payment of the court-imposed fine. The palace asserted that all conditions of this pardon have been met and that the royal prerogative must be upheld without confusion or delay.
"The conditional pardon order is clear, explicit and without any ambiguity, and is unrelated to any other cases against him," the palace stated. It further cautioned that, given the fulfillment of all conditions, "any arguments challenging the order would amount to disobeying the command" of the king.
The house arrest order pertains exclusively to the reduced six-year sentence resulting from his initial trial. It does not affect a separate 15-year prison sentence handed down in December 2025 regarding a second major trial linked to the 1MDB affair, which Najib is currently appealing. The attorney general’s office previously raised concerns regarding how the house arrest might interact with this consecutive sentence, noting that the delay was intended to ensure accurate legal implementation rather than to contest the pardon itself.
Najib, who established the 1MDB fund shortly after taking office in 2009, was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 210 million ringgit ($51.5 million) in 2020 for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering involving 42 million ringgit ($10.3 million) from SRC International. In January 2024, the Pardons Board halved his prison term to six years and reduced the fine to 50 million ringgit. Public outrage over the 1MDB scandal, in which at least $4.5 billion was allegedly laundered by Najib’s associates, played a significant role in the 2018 election defeat of the ruling coalition. Despite his legal troubles, Najib remains an influential figure within the United Malays National Organisation, a component of the government that assumed power in 2022.
