A Malaysian court has rejected an attempt by former Prime Minister Najib Razak to complete the remainder of his prison term under house arrest, ruling that the royal document cited in his application carries no legal force.
The decision, delivered on Monday by the Kuala Lumpur High Court, keeps Najib behind bars as he continues to serve a sentence linked to the sprawling 1MDB corruption scandal. Najib has been incarcerated since August 2022, following his conviction over the misuse of public funds connected to SRC International, a former subsidiary of the state investment fund.
Najib, now 72, had asked the court to compel authorities to recognise and enforce what he described as an “addendum order” issued by the former king as part of a royal pardon. According to his lawyers, the document entitled him to serve his remaining sentence at home rather than in prison.
Justice Alice Loke acknowledged that the existence of the document itself was not in question. However, she ruled that it could not be acted upon because it did not follow constitutional procedure. Under Malaysian law, royal pardons must involve consultation with the Pardons Board. In this case, the judge said, that requirement was not met.
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She further noted that Malaysian law does not provide any formal framework for house arrest as a mode of serving a criminal sentence. As a result, even if such an order had been intended, it could not be legally executed.
Najib appeared calm during the ruling and later smiled briefly as his lawyer described the outcome as shocking. His legal team confirmed that an appeal would be filed.
Najib was initially sentenced in 2020 to 12 years in prison for corruption involving about 42 million ringgit. That sentence was later reduced by half following a review by the Pardons Board. Despite this reduction, he remains one of the most prominent political figures in Malaysia to be jailed for corruption.
The former leader is also awaiting a verdict in a separate and far larger 1MDB case due later this week. Prosecutors allege that he abused his positions to divert billions of ringgit from the fund into personal accounts, relying on extensive financial records and witness testimony. Najib has denied the accusations, blaming wrongdoing on fugitive financier Jho Low.
The ruling is being closely watched as part of a broader test of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s anticorruption agenda, amid ongoing public scrutiny of how Malaysia handles one of the most notorious financial scandals in its history.