A Malaysian court has issued an order allowing the transferto house arrest of jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak, his lawyer said onFriday, after his party announced it had paid a fine under the terms of a royalpardon.
Najib, primeminister from 2009 to 2018, was found guilty of corruption in relation to theembezzlement of billions of dollars tied to 1Malaysia Development Berhad,a state investment fund he co-founded while in power. He has consistentlydenied wrongdoing.
“We have thatorder, and we will be delivering that order to the Kajang prison right now,”Najib’s lawyer Farhan Shafee told reporters, referring to the jailwhere Najib has been held since 2022.
Najib,73, could go home on Friday if the process goes according to plan, headded.
Malaysia’s KingSultan Ibrahim agreed in September to allow Najib to serve the remainder of hissentence under house arrest, in a second royal pardon over hisconviction.
Najib wasrequired to pay a 50 million ringgit ($12.32 million) fine as a condition ofthe pardon, which his party, the United Malays National Organisation, saidhad been done on his behalf.
UMNO usedcrowdfunding to cover Najib’s fine, which his lawyers said he was unable to payhimself because his bank accounts were frozen.
In the 1MDBscandal, more than $1 billion allegedly made its way into accounts linked toNajib, who says he has been made the scapegoat for a complex, globe-spanningscheme that siphoned away as much as $4.5 billion in funds, according to USinvestigators.
Najib was alsoconvicted in a separate 1MDB-related case in December last year, for which hewas sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined $2.8 billion for abuse ofpower and money laundering.
He has lodged anappeal in that case.
Najib’s lawyershad requested that the jail term and the fines be suspended pending the appeal,citing his declining health and inability to pay the large fine.
But a judgerejected the request last month, saying there were no special circumstances and“the gravity of the offense is a more important public interest consideration”.
Najib remains adivisive figure in Malaysian politics but is still influential in theonce-dominant UMNO, which is part of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’smulti-party government.
Anwar’s PakatanHarapan alliance has strongly opposed leniency towards Najib and histransfer to house arrest could create more tension in the coalition government.
Though the nextelection is not due to take place until early 2028, Anwar has said he couldcall a snap poll if rifts deepen.
Tony Pua, aformer DAP lawmaker who played a key role in drawing attention to the 1MDB scandal,said Najib was “Malaysia’s biggest crook” and chided UMNO for raisingfunds for him.
“Instead ofusing such a large sum of money to help ordinary Malaysians, they chose to ‘free’Malaysia’s most corrupt,” he said on Facebook.
