Malaysian palace says house arrest order for imprisoned ex-leader Najib must be respected
Malaysia's national palace says the royal decision allowing former Prime Minister Najib Razak to serve his prison sentence under house arrest is clear
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia's national palace said Saturday that the royal decision allowing imprisoned former Prime Minister Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest was clear and must be respected, warning that attempts to challenge it amounted to defying the king.
The palace statement came a day after the attorney general temporarily blockedNajib's transfer from prison to house arrest, saying more legal clarification was needed.
Najib had left the prison Friday, after his political party paid a 50 million ringgit ($12.3 million) fine required under the terms of a royal pardon that would see him serve the remainder of his graft sentence at home. But he was brought back to prison hours later, following the attorney-general's intervention.
Najib has been imprisoned since August 2022, when Malaysia’s top court upheld his conviction in his first graft trial linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of state investment fund 1MDB. Malaysia’s king in September granted Najib clemency, allowing him to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest once he pays a court-imposed fine.
The palace said all conditions attached to Najib's conditional pardon had been fulfilled and that the royal prerogative of pardon must be respected. It said there should be no confusion regarding the interpretation of the pardon and that there should be no prolonged uncertainty over its implementation.
“The conditional pardon order is clear, explicit and without any ambiguity, and is unrelated to any other cases against him,” the statement said.
“Given that all the conditions in the conditional pardon order have been fulfilled, any arguments challenging the order would amount to disobeying the command" of the king, it added.
There was no immediate response from the attorney-general's office.
The house arrest applies only to his reduced six-year sentence in the first trial. It doesn’t cover a separate 15-year prison sentence imposed in December 2025 for corruption and money laundering in a second major trial tied to the 1MDB scandal. He’s appealing that sentence.
The attorney general’s office cited legal ambiguities in the house arrest order and raised concerns over how it could affect Najib’s consecutive 15-year prison sentence. It said the delay was not meant to contest the royal pardon allowing house arrest, but to ensure it was implemented accurately and in line with the law.
Najib set up the 1MDB development fund shortly after he took office in 2009. Investigators say at least $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates through layers of bank accounts in the U.S. and other countries.
He 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) channeled into his bank accounts from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.
In January 2024, the Pardons Board halved his sentence to six years and reduced his fine to 50 million ringgit.
King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar subsequently granted Najib a conditional pardon, paving the way for house arrest until Aug. 23, 2028, provided he paid the fine. If Najib fails to win his appeal in the second case, he could face a further 15 years in prison after the current sentence ends.
Public outrage over the 1MDB scandal led to a historic 2018 election defeat of the ruling coalition, which had governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957. Despite his conviction, Najib still wields influence in his party, United Malays National Organisation, which is now part of a new government that took power in 2022.