Malaysia Ex-PM Najib Leaves Jail for House Arrest After $12.3m Fine Paid

Photo: Getty via Al Jazeera

Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak has walked out of jail. His party paid a 50 million ringgit fine, about $12.3 million, raised through crowdfunding, and he will now serve the rest of his sentence at home under house arrest.

Najib, 73, left Kajang prison on Friday after more than four years behind bars. Police were stationed outside his home in Kuala Lumpur early in the morning and the road leading to it was blocked off. His lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said the court had issued the order for the move and the papers were taken to the prison straight away.

He has been in jail since August 2022. He was found guilty over the 1MDB scandal, the state investment fund he set up while he was prime minister from 2009 to 2018. Investigators say about $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund, and more than $1 billion of it was linked to Najib. He has always denied any wrongdoing and says he was blamed alone for a fraud that stretched across the world.

He was first given 12 years in prison and a 210 million ringgit fine for taking 42 million ringgit from SRC International, a firm once tied to 1MDB. In 2024 the Pardons Board cut his jail term to six years and lowered the fine to 50 million ringgit. Then in September this year, Malaysia's King Sultan Ibrahim granted him a conditional pardon, letting him serve what is left of that term at home until 23 August 2028, as long as the fine was paid.

The money came from his party, the United Malays National Organisation, which he once led. It set up the Najib Razak Solidarity Fund on 18 September and raised the full amount from public donations, collecting more than one million ringgit on the first day alone. The party said it finished paying the fine at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Friday morning and has now closed the fund. Najib could not pay it himself because his bank accounts are frozen.

The decision is already shaking Malaysian politics. Al Jazeera's Rob McBride, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said the pardon could stir up the political scene and raise hard questions about how politics shaped it. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has spoken out against the pardon in public, as the man who built his name fighting corruption. But there is talk in Kuala Lumpur that he may have helped it through behind closed doors, under pressure from Najib's party. Transport Minister Anthony Loke has said he plans to resign from the cabinet over the pardon.

Najib's troubles are not over. He was also found guilty in a second 1MDB trial in December last year, where he was given 15 years in prison and fined 11.4 billion ringgit for money laundering and abuse of power. He has appealed that case and asked for the jail term and fines to be put on hold, pointing to poor health and saying he cannot pay. A judge turned him down in September, saying the seriousness of the offence mattered more.

That means Najib is due back in jail to serve out that sentence once his house arrest ends in 2028, though it is far from clear at this stage whether that will really happen. For now, his supporters see a man who was once the most powerful person in the country finally going home, while his critics see a pardon that lets a convicted former leader escape prison.

Politics keeps shifting across the world this week, from the Democrats winning their biggest US House majority since 2008 to Pakistan leading a call for diplomacy at the UN Security Council and Turkiye's parliament ratifies the Mecca defence pact. Najib's release adds one more twist to a crowded week.

Sources

• Al Jazeera: Court grants ex-Malaysian PM Najib house arrest after $12m royal pardon
• Reuters: Malaysia ex-PM Najib Razak set for house arrest after party pays fine to leave jail
• Channel News Asia: Malaysian ex-PM Najib leaves jail after paying fine to pave way for house arrest
• The Business Times: Najib set for house arrest after US$12.3 million fine is paid in 1MDB case

Najib is expected to reach his Kuala Lumpur home today, and Malaysia now waits to see how the pardon plays out in its politics.

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