Malaysia Court Rejects Ex-PM Najib Razak’s House Arrest Bid Despite Royal Addendum

A Malaysian court rejected former prime minister Najib Razak’s bid for house arrest, ruling that a royal addendum order allowing it was not constitutionally valid. The decision comes days before a verdict in Najib’s major 1MDB corruption and money laundering trial.

A Malaysian court on Monday rejected an application by jailed former prime minister Najib Razak seeking to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest, ruling that a royal order cited in support of the request was not issued in accordance with constitutional procedures.
Najib has been imprisoned since 2022 after being convicted of corruption linked to the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. His original 12-year jail sentence was reduced by half last year following a decision by a pardons board chaired by Malaysia’s former king. However, Najib has argued that the monarch also issued an additional directive, referred to as an “addendum order,” which he claims converts his remaining sentence to house arrest.
Based on this claim, Najib has sought a court order compelling the government to acknowledge the existence of the addendum and to implement its provisions. For several months, government officials, including members of the pardons board, denied any knowledge of such a document. More recently, however, the former king’s office and a federal government lawyer confirmed that the royal document had indeed been issued.
Under Malaysia’s constitutional system, the king’s role is largely ceremonial, but the monarch does have discretionary powers, including the authority to grant pardons to convicted individuals. In its ruling on Monday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court said the existence of the addendum order was not in dispute. However, the court held that the order could not be enforced because it was not made in consultation with the country’s pardons board, as required by the federal constitution.
Presiding judge Alice Loke said that while Malaysia’s rulers have discretionary authority when issuing pardons, those powers are subject to constitutional limits. She noted that the addendum order had neither been deliberated upon nor approved during a meeting of the pardons board, rendering it legally invalid. “The addendum order was not deliberated nor decided at the pardons board meeting. Consequently, it is not a valid order,” she said.
The ruling comes just days before the court is due to deliver a verdict in Najib’s largest and most significant remaining trial related to the 1MDB scandal. Investigators in the United States have alleged that at least $4.5 billion was misappropriated from the state investment fund by senior officials and their associates. Prosecutors claim that more than $1 billion of those funds flowed into bank accounts linked to Najib, who co-founded 1MDB in 2009.
On December 26, the court is scheduled to decide whether to convict Najib on four additional corruption charges and 21 counts of money laundering. The charges relate to the alleged illegal transfer of approximately 2.2 billion ringgit, equivalent to about $538.69 million, from 1MDB. Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with the scandal.
If convicted on these charges, Najib could face a maximum prison sentence of up to 20 years for each offence, in addition to fines of up to five times the value of the alleged misappropriated sums.