Former Malaysian PM Najib granted house arrest after $12m fine paid following royal pardon
A court has allowed Malaysia's jailed former prime minister Najib Razak to transfer to house arrest after his party paid a $12m fine following a royal pardon.
Najib's lawyer, Farhan Shafee, told reporters on Friday that he had received the order and would be delivering it to Kajang prison. His house arrest could start on Friday if everything goes to plan, Shafee said.
Najib has been in jail since 2022, following his conviction for corruption and embezzlement connected to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state investment fund he co-founded while in power from 2009 to 2018. He denies any wrongdoing.
Malaysia's King Sultan Ibrahim agreed in September 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, as his bank accounts have been frozen.
Al Jazeera's Rob McBride, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said the decision could cause a political stir in Malaysia and potentially affect the country's political scene. Questions are also being asked about how current politics may have influenced the pardon, he said.
McBride said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has publicly raised concerns about the pardon in his capacity as an anti-corruption figurehead, but there has been speculation he may have helped it go through behind the scenes due to pressure from Najib's party.
Investigators say about $4.5bn was stolen from the 1MDB fund and more than $1bn of it was linked to Najib. Najib has said he was solely blamed for a highly complicated global fraud scheme.
Separately, Najib was also convicted in another major 1MDB trial, where he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $2.5bn fine for money laundering and abuse of power. He has appealed, and his lawyers asked for the jail term and fines to be halted citing poor health and inability to pay, but a judge rejected that request in September.
