In a statement, the Attorney General’s office announced that Najib would remain in prison until the legal matters were resolved. The office cited ambiguities in the house arrest order and raised concerns regarding how it might impact a separate, consecutive 15-year prison sentence imposed on Najib in December 2025. Officials clarified that the delay was not intended to contest the royal pardon itself, but to ensure its accurate implementation in accordance with the law.
Najib, 73, has been imprisoned since August 2022, when Malaysia’s top court upheld his conviction in a graft trial linked to the 1MDB scandal. In September, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar granted Najib a conditional pardon, permitting him to serve the remainder of his reduced six-year sentence under house arrest upon payment of the fine. This clemency applies only to the sentence from his first trial. It does not cover a separate 15-year sentence handed down in December 2025 for corruption and money laundering in a second major trial related to 1MDB, a sentence against which Najib is currently appealing.
The move to secure house arrest was facilitated by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Najib’s political party. Asyraf Wajid Dusuki, the party’s secretary-general, stated that UMNO had completed the fine payment at the High Court earlier on Friday. Police had been stationed at Najib’s residence in Kuala Lumpur and blocked access roads in anticipation of his release, but the intervention by the Attorney General’s office stopped the transfer.
Najib’s original conviction in 2020 resulted in a 12-year prison term and a 210 million ringgit fine for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering related to the receipt of approximately $10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. A previous royal pardon in early 2024 halved his prison sentence to six years and reduced the fine to 50 million ringgit. The 1MDB scandal, involving the alleged looting of at least $4.5 billion from the state investment fund, led to Najib’s government’s defeat in the 2018 election and has triggered investigations in multiple countries, including the United States, Switzerland, and Singapore.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s coalition has faced significant political pressure following the clemency grant, with critics arguing it undermines the rule of law. The Attorney General’s office has not yet specified a timeline for resolving the legal ambiguities. Najib’s lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment on the suspension of the transfer.
