Malaysia court grants jailed ex-PM Najib access to house arrest decree

In a rare move for a disgraced former leader at the center of the country’s biggest scandal, Malaysia’s appeals court accepted former prime minister Najib Razak’s request to see a document he claimed should allow him to serve his sentence at home.

Najib’s appeal was thrown out on Monday by a three-member bench that decided 2-1 to use the decree to bring his case before the High Court.

“Given the fact that there is no challenge]of the existence of the decree], there is no justification that the order has not been complied with”, said Mohamad Firuz Jaffril, one of the three Court of Appeal judges.

The 71-year-old Najib, who was imprisoned over the $1 billion 1MDB scandal, had filed an appeal last July that upheld his request to formally reaffirm and execute a royal order he claimed would have placed him on house arrest.

Malaysia’s pardons board, at the time chaired by then-King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, agreed in February last year to halve Najib’s jail sentence to six years from 12 and reduce fines imposed on him, prompting public uproar.

Najib argued, however, that the former king had issued an “addendum order” for house arrest as part of the decree and that it had never been carried out by the authorities.

Malaysia’s home minister claimed the prisons department had not been informed about Najib’s potential home detention last year following the court ruling on Monday.

Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who presided over the pardons board, stated in a press conference that the home ministry had not received any information from the former king of Malaysia. “The government will fully implement royal orders if received”, he said.

According to the constitution, the monarch, who changes every five years under Malaysia’s unique system of monarchy, has authority to take decisions on granting pardons, upon the advice of the pardons board.

Following Monday’s ruling, “Najib was happy”, his lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told a news conference. He is relieved that some injustice has been done against him because they finally recognized it.

Najib was found guilty in 2020 of a criminal breach of trust and power abuse for stealing money from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a subsidiary of the government.

In a number of other 1MDB-related cases, Najib is still facing corruption charges. He has consistently denied wrongdoing.