Najib Razak Granted House Arrest After Party Pays $12m Fine

Najib Razak, Malaysia’s jailed former prime minister, has been cleared to move to house arrest after his party paid a 50 million ringgit ($12.3m) fine. The fine was a condition of a royal decision in September. A court granted the Najib Razak house arrest order on Friday, 6 November, according to his lawyer. The move is likely to stir fresh debate in Malaysia over corruption and political influence. It also raises questions about how much time the former leader will actually spend behind bars.

How the Najib Razak house arrest order came about

Najib, who led Malaysia from 2009 to 2018, has been in prison since 2022. He was convicted of corruption linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state fund, which he co-founded while in power.

In September, Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim agreed to let him serve the rest of that sentence at home. However, the decision required him to pay his fine first. Because Najib’s bank accounts are frozen, his party stepped in.

The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) raised the money through a public fundraising campaign. “UMNO has completed all payment processes to the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning,” the party said on Friday, Reuters reported.

Later, Najib’s lawyer, Farhan Shafee, told reporters he had received the order. He said he was “delivering that order to the Kajang prison right now”, Al Jazeera reported. He added that the house arrest could begin on Friday if everything went to plan.

A second royal intervention

This is the second time Najib’s sentence has been eased by royal decision, Reuters noted. In 2024, an earlier pardons board decision halved his original 12-year jail term and cut his fine.

Najib has always denied wrongdoing. He says he was made a scapegoat for a complex global fraud that others carried out.

The 1MDB scandal in brief

1MDB was set up to fund development projects in Malaysia. Instead, US investigators say as much as $4.5bn was siphoned from the fund. More than $1bn of that allegedly reached accounts linked to Najib.

The scandal led to investigations in several countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. It also contributed to the fall of Najib’s government in the 2018 election.

Goldman Sachs, which helped raise money for 1MDB, later agreed to pay billions of dollars in settlements over its role. Meanwhile, Malaysian financier Jho Low, accused of being a central figure in the scheme, remains at large. He also denies wrongdoing.

A separate 15-year sentence still stands

The house arrest does not end Najib’s legal troubles. In a separate major 1MDB trial, he received a 15-year prison term and a fine of about $2.5bn for money laundering and abuse of power, Al Jazeera reported.

He has appealed that verdict. His lawyers also asked for the jail term and fine to be paused, citing his poor health and inability to pay. Yet a judge rejected the request in September. The judge said “the gravity of the offence is a more important public interest consideration”.

According to Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Kuala Lumpur, Najib is due to return to prison for that sentence when his house arrest ends in 2028. Even so, it remains unclear whether that will actually happen.

Political pressure on Anwar

The decision puts Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in a difficult spot. Anwar built his career on fighting corruption and has publicly raised concerns about the pardon.

At the same time, UMNO is a key partner in his coalition government. As a result, there has been speculation that political pressure helped the pardon go through, Al Jazeera reported.

“This has an awful lot of political spinoff,” Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride said from Kuala Lumpur. He added that questions are being asked about how current politics affected the pardon.

What comes next

The exact timing of Najib’s transfer home was not immediately clear, Reuters said. Once it happens, he will live under restrictions set by the authorities. Meanwhile, his appeal against the 15-year sentence continues. For many Malaysians, the case remains a test of whether powerful leaders face equal justice.

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