Najib gets house arrest - but there's an expensive RM50m caveat

After spending 1,487 days behind bars, former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has been granted a conditional pardon allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.

However, there is an expensive caveat.

The Federal Territories Pardons Board, chaired by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, has made the arrangement conditional on Najib paying a RM50 million fine and complying with all conditions imposed under the pardon.

According to a statement by the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department, any breach of the conditions would result in the conditional pardon being revoked, with Najib required to immediately return to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Najib began serving his prison sentence on Aug 23, 2022, after the Federal Court unanimously dismissed his final appeal in the SRC International case, upholding his conviction on seven charges involving RM42 million belonging to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court had convicted Najib in July 2020 on one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust and three counts of money laundering, sentencing him to 12 years in prison and fining him RM210 million.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and sentence in December 2021, before the Federal Court dismissed his final appeal on Aug 23, 2022.

In January 2024, the Pardons Board halved his prison sentence to six years and reduced the fine from RM210 million to RM50 million. His revised release date was Aug 23, 2028, although the fine reduction came with a provision that failure to pay would result in a further prison term.

Not the end

Today’s decision does not, however, bring an end to Najib’s legal battles.

In December last year, the High Court convicted him on 25 charges in the separate 1MDB case - four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.3 billion linked to the scandal - and sentenced him to 15 years in prison as well as a RM11.38 billion fine. He has appealed against the conviction and sentence.

In the grounds of judgment released in June, then High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah described the scale of the financial plunder in the 1MDB case as so vast that it made Attila the Hun “look like a choirboy”.

The fresh clemency for Najib also comes amid renewed political tensions between Pakatan Harapan and Umno, exposing further fissures within the Madani government.

Ahead of the previous Pardons Board meeting, Harapan had maintained that individuals convicted of corruption or abuse of power, particularly in high-profile cases, should serve the full sentences imposed by the courts.

Umno, meanwhile, criticised Harapan’s position, with party secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki accusing the coalition of questioning the constitutional powers of the Malay rulers.

Not accorded fair trial

The debate has also revived concerns about the implications of further clemency for Najib, including whether it could fuel perceptions of double standards in the application of the rule of law.

Najib’s supporters, including senior Umno leaders, have maintained that he was not accorded a fair trial and have repeatedly pressed for further royal clemency.

Najib became Malaysia’s sixth prime minister on April 3, 2009, succeeding Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. His political downfall came at the 14th general election on May 9, 2018, when Barisan Nasional lost federal power for the first time since independence.

Harapan's victory, led by Najib’s predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was driven in significant part by public anger over the 1MDB scandal, which by then had become a defining issue of Najib’s administration.

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