Malaysia’s jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak was set to move from prison to house arrest on Friday after his party paid a $12m fine following a royal pardon, but the attorney general temporarily suspended the transfer pending legal clarification. Najib’s lawyer, Farhan Shafee, told reporters he had been given the order and would be “delivering that order to the Kajang prison right now,” adding that house arrest could begin on Friday if everything went to plan.
Malaysia’s attorney general announced later on Friday that the transfer had been suspended. In a statement reported by Reuters, the attorney general’s chambers said Najib’s current detention status in prison “will be maintained as some legal questions regarding the interpretation of Najib’s conditional royal pardon need clarifying.”
The order followed an agreement in September by Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim to pardon Najib, allowing him to serve the rest of his sentence at home. Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organisation, reportedly used crowdfunding to cover his 50 million ringgit ($12m) fine because his bank accounts have been frozen.
Najib, who denies any wrongdoing, has been held in jail since 2022 after his conviction for corruption and embezzlement linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state investment fund he cofounded while in power from 2009 to 2018. Investigators say about $4.5bn was stolen from the 1MDB fund, with more than $1bn linked to Najib.
The decision could cause political ripples in Malaysia. Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said there were questions about how current politics had affected the pardon. He said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who has presented himself as an anticorruption figurehead, had publicly raised concerns about the pardon, but there has been speculation that he may have helped it go through behind the scenes due to pressure from Najib’s party.
Separately, Najib was convicted in a 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 the case, and his lawyers requested that the jail term and fine be halted, citing poor health and his inability to pay. A judge rejected the request in September, saying “the gravity of the offence is a more important public interest consideration.”
McBride said Najib is due to return to jail to serve out that sentence as soon as his house arrest ends in 2028, but it is unclear at this stage whether that will happen.
Original Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/6/courts-grant-ex-malaysian-pm-najib-house-arrest-after-12m-royal-pardon
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Publish Date: 2026-11-06 18:14:00
