Malaysia Halts Najib Razak's Transfer to House Arrest as Attorney General Seeks Legal Clarity

On Friday in Kuala Lumpur, police were posted outside Najib Razak's house and the road leading to it was blocked. Local media had reported that the former prime minister had left prison to serve the rest of his graft sentence at home. By the end of the day, he was reportedly back in his cell.

The reversal came from Malaysia's attorney general, who temporarily blocked the transfer, saying more legal clarification was needed. The intervention came late, after Najib's political party, the United Malays National Organization, paid the 50 million ringgit fine (US$12.3 million) attached to a royal pardon that allowed house arrest. The attorney general's office said in a statement that Najib would stay in prison until the legal matters were resolved. Local media reported that he was returned to prison later in the day, after undergoing medical checks. His lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.

The office pointed to ambiguities in the house arrest order and raised concerns about how it might affect Najib's consecutive 15-year prison sentence. It stressed that the delay was not a challenge to the royal pardon. The aim, it said, was to make sure the order was carried out accurately and in line with the law.

UMNO's secretary-general, Asyraf Wajid Dusuki, said the party had raised enough money through a donation drive for Najib and had completed payment of the fine at the High Court earlier on Friday.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had said beforehand that he disagreed with UMNO's decision to settle the fine, because it risked sending the wrong message about large-scale corruption. He acknowledged, however, that the decision was the party's right. Bernama, the national news agency, quoted him as saying it should not give the public the impression that corruption involving billions of ringgit can simply be overlooked.

Najib has been in prison since August 2022, when Malaysia's top court upheld his conviction in the first trial tied to the looting of the 1MDB state investment fund. He set up 1MDB shortly after taking office in 2009. Investigators say at least US$4.5 billion was stolen from it and laundered by his associates through layers of bank accounts in the United States and elsewhere. The money was allegedly spent on Hollywood films, hotels, a luxury yacht, art and jewelry.

That first case involved 42 million ringgit (US$10.3 million) channeled into his accounts from SRC International, a former 1MDB unit. In 2020 he was sentenced to 12 years and fined 210 million ringgit (US$51.5 million). In January 2024 the Pardons Board halved the prison term to six years and cut the fine to 50 million ringgit. In September, King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar granted a conditional pardon that opened the way to house arrest until Aug. 23, 2028, provided the fine was paid.

The house arrest covers only that reduced six-year sentence. It does not touch a separate 15-year term imposed in December 2025 for corruption and money laundering in a second major 1MDB trial. Najib is appealing that sentence, and if the appeal fails he could face a further 15 years after the current one ends.

The scandal's public outrage helped bring about the 2018 election defeat of the coalition that had governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957. Najib still holds influence in UMNO, which is now part of the government that took power in 2022. What to watch next is how the attorney general's office resolves the questions over the order, and the outcome of the second appeal.