Court Grants EX-Malaysian PM’s Plea to Serve Prison Term at Home
A Malaysian court on Monday granted jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s bid to access a royal document that should allow him to serve his sentence at home, in a rare win for the disgraced former leader at the heart of the country’s biggest scandal.
Najib initially applied in April last year, claiming that then-King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah had issued an addendum order permitting him to complete his sentence at home.
Najib, imprisoned for his role in a multibillion-dollar fraud at state fund 1MDB, had his 12-year sentence halved last year in a pardon by then-King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, but the former premier insists the monarch also grants him house arrest in an “addendum order” that he says authorities ignored.
The Court of Appeal on Monday ruled that a lower court dismissal of Najib’s request to confirm the document’s existence be overturned and sent back to the High Court to be heard by a different judge.
This decision came after Najib’s lawyer, Mohamad Shafee Abdullah, presented a letter from a Pahang state palace official confirming the existence of the addendum order.
“We are happy that finally Najib has got a win,” Shafee said. “He is very happy and very relieved that finally they recognised some element of injustice that has been placed against him.”
He described the government’s alleged concealment of the Sultan’s order as “criminal” and noted that a new High Court judge would preside over the case.
In his application, Najib accused the pardons board, the home minister, the attorney general, and four others of concealing the Sultan’s directive “in bad faith.”
Sultan Abdullah, who is from Najib’s hometown of Pahang, concluded his five-year reign on 30 January last year under Malaysia’s rotating monarchy system. His successor took office the following day.
Najib served less than two years of his sentence before it was reduced by the pardons board. It is now set to end in late August 2028.
