Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak Leaves Prison for House Arrest
Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has left prison to serve the rest of his corruption sentence under house arrest, a arrangement that Malaysia's High Court ruled on Tuesday was effective immediately.
Najib, who is 73, returned late on Tuesday night to his residence in Kuala Lumpur, the capital. BBC reported that he travelled in an SUV escorted by a heavily armed police convoy. His mansion had been declared a federal prison ahead of the transfer.
Najib served as prime minister from 2009 to 2018. He co-founded 1MDB, a state-owned wealth fund, which investigators estimated had lost $4.5 billion to private pockets. Prosecutors alleged that more than $1 billion of that money ended up in accounts linked to him.
His legal path has run through several courts. In 2020, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison at his first trial, after being convicted of abuse of power, money laundering and breach of trust. The charges concerned 42 million ringgit, Malaysia's currency, moved from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB, into his private accounts. He was jailed in 2022, and his sentence was later halved. He then served a four-year prison stint before the transfer.
The king granted him a conditional pardon, a royal decision that lets a convicted person serve the remainder of a sentence under set terms, which allows him to serve the remaining two years at home. Najib's party paid a $12 million fine as part of those terms. The move was delayed after Malaysia's attorney general sought clarification of the royal decree, the formal order that set out the pardon.
Najib faces a further sentence. In December 2025, he was handed a 15-year prison term at a second trial for misappropriating nearly 2.3 billion ringgit from 1MDB. He is appealing against that sentence. His house arrest is expected to end in August 2028, after which he is due to begin serving the 15-year term.
