Kuala Lumpur, Nov 10 (AP) Malaysia’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Najib Razak was transferred from prison to his home Tuesday to serve the remainder of his graft sentence under house arrest, following a court ruling that cleared the way for his release from prison.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court cleared the final legal hurdles for the transfer earlier Tuesday.
Najib, Malaysia’s first former leader to be imprisoned for a major corruption scandal, was seen in a vehicle that entered his house in Kuala Lumpur. He had been imprisoned since August 2022 following a graft conviction linked to a multibillion-dollar looting of the state investment fund 1MDB. In September, Najib was granted royal clemency, allowing him to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest once he paid a court-imposed fine.
Last Friday, he left prison after his political party paid the 50 million ringgit (USD 12.3 million) fine, but he was brought back hours later after the attorney general blocked the transfer, seeking legal clarifications.
The attorney general’s request sparked a public rebuke from the palace, which said that King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar’s prerogative of pardon for Najib that allowed the house arrest was clear and must be respected. It said any attempts to challenge it would amount to defying the royal order.
Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told reporters after a court hearing Tuesday that all was settled for the former prime minister’s transfer to house arrest at his Kuala Lumpur home, where he is to remain until August 23, 2028.
“It’s a final relief, you know, great sigh to him because he has been waiting for this,” the lawyer said.
The house arrest covers only Najib’s reduced, six-year sentence in his first trial for graft and not a separate, 15-year sentence handed down last December for corruption and money laundering. That sentence followed a second major trial tied to the 1MDB scandal.
Najib is also appealing that sentence, which he is to serve after the end of his first sentence. If his appeal fails, he could return to prison after his house arrest ends.
Najib, who served as prime minister from 2009 to 2018, has denied any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal. It marked one of the world’s largest financial scandals, rippling across global markets and triggering investigations in the United States and other countries.
(PTI News)
