Malaysia’s king has permitted former prime minister Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his corruption sentence under house arrest, the Daily Mirror reported on Friday.
The house arrest will run until 23 August 2028, according to a departmental statement cited in the report.
Najib, 73, was prime minister from 2009 to 2018. He was found guilty of corruption over the embezzlement of billions of dollars tied to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state investment fund he co-founded while in office.
Why this is a reversal
The decision undoes the position Malaysian courts reached nine months ago.
In December 2025 the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected Najib’s bid to serve his sentence at home, ruling that a royal addendum order permitting the move was invalid. Judge Alice Loke held that while the order’s existence was not in dispute, it was not legally enforceable because it had not been issued with the consultation of the pardons board that the constitution requires. The court, in her formulation, found that the king could not grant house arrest independently of that board.
Najib has been jailed since August 2022. His original 12-year sentence was halved by the pardons board, which is consistent with the August 2028 end date now reported — meaning the order appears to let him serve out an existing term at home rather than shortening it.
The Daily Mirror does not say what mechanism was used this time, or whether the pardons board was consulted — the precise defect the High Court identified in December. That is the question on which the order’s durability turns, and this article does not assume it has been cured.
Context
Najib’s conviction is the central outcome of the 1MDB affair, in which billions of dollars were drained from a fund set up to finance development projects. The scandal reached investigators and courts in several countries and contributed to the defeat of his coalition at the 2018 general election, ending six decades of unbroken rule.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror’s filing is brief and does not identify the department that issued the statement, name the king, state the conditions attached to the house arrest, or say where Najib will be held or when the transfer takes effect. It does not record any response from the Attorney General’s Chambers, the pardons board or Najib’s lawyers, and it does not say whether the separate 1MDB proceedings in which he faced further counts are affected.
No other verified newsroom in Sri Lanka had filed on the decision at the time of writing.
