Malaysia's graft-convicted former Prime Minister Najib Razak has been granted royal clemency and will serve the remainder of his six-year jail term under house arrest, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's legal department announced on Friday.
King Sultan Ibrahim "has granted a conditional pardon" to Najib, "allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest" until August 23, 2028, lawyers said. The conditional pardon is subject to the payment of 50 million Malaysian ringgit ($12.3 million; €10.7 million).
Najib, 73, is currently serving a six-year term for his role in the 1MDB corruption scandal, named after 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state investment fund he co-founded while serving as prime minister from 2009 to 2018. In 2020, he was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving $10.3 million funneled into his bank accounts. He began his sentence in 2022.
In a separate case, Najib was convicted in December 2025 of abuse of power and money laundering, accused of misappropriating nearly $569 million from 1MDB. He was fined $2.8 billion and sentenced to another 15 years in prison, to take effect after his existing sentence ends. He is currently appealing that conviction. It was not specified on Friday whether the clemency applied to the first conviction affects the second case.
It is not the first time Najib has received a pardon. Under the previous king in 2024, his 12-year sentence from the first conviction was cut in half, and fines were reduced. At the time, he had sought unsuccessfully to secure house arrest. Najib's legal team has not yet commented on Friday's decision, and it is not immediately clear when the former leader will be released into house arrest.
Investigators allege the 1MDB scandal involved at least $4.5 billion in state funds stolen and laundered by top executives and associates of Najib. Najib has always denied wrongdoing and has tried to frame himself as a scapegoat. The embezzlement scandal sparked national outrage in Malaysia and led to the 2018 election defeat of Najib's party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which had governed the country since independence from Britain in 1957. The scion of a prominent political family, Najib was long seen as untouchable. He still holds political clout in Malaysia, and Friday's royal clemency could lead to questions over equal treatment under the law.
Source: www.dw.com