Courts grant ex-Malaysian PM Najib house arrest after $12m royal pardon

Key points

• Najib Razak was granted house arrest after his party paid a $12m fine tied to a royal pardon.
• Najib has been jailed since 2022 over corruption linked to the 1MDB state fund.
• Al Jazeera reported the decision could cause political fallout in Malaysia.

Malaysia's jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak has been allowed to move to house arrest after his party paid a $12m fine following a royal pardon, his lawyer Farhan Shafee said on Friday. Shafee told reporters he had received the order and would be "delivering that order to the Kajang prison right now", adding that house arrest could begin on Friday if all goes to plan.

Najib has been held in jail since 2022 after being convicted of corruption and embezzlement linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state investment fund he co-founded while in power from 2009 to 2018. He denies any wrongdoing. The order follows Malaysia's King Sultan Ibrahim agreeing in September to pardon Najib, allowing him to serve the rest of his sentence at home.

Fine paid through crowdfunding

Najib's party, the United Malays National Organisation, reportedly used crowdfunding to cover his 50 million ringgit ($12m) fine, as his bank accounts have been frozen.

Investigators say about $4.5bn was stolen from the 1MDB fund, with more than $1bn of it linked to Najib. He has said he was solely blamed for a highly complicated global fraud scheme.

delivering that order to the Kajang prison right now

— Farhan Shafee

Political questions and a second case

Al Jazeera's Rob McBride, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said the decision could cause a political stir in Malaysia, with questions about how current politics affected the pardon. He said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has publicly raised concerns about the pardon as the country's "anticorruption figurehead", while there has been speculation he may have helped it behind the scenes under pressure from Najib's party.

Najib was also convicted in a separate major 1MDB trial and sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $2.5bn fine for money laundering and abuse of power. He has appealed, and a judge rejected his request to halt the term and fines in September. McBride said Najib is due back in jail to serve that sentence once his house arrest ends in 2028, though it is unclear if this will happen.