Malaysian ex-PM Najib files bid to serve rest of 1MDB jail term in house arrest

Malaysia’s disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak has filed an application in court to compel the government to make public a supplementary decree by the nation’s former king, which Najib says would allow him to serve the remainder of his 1MDB-linked jail term under house arrest.

The decision was made by then-king Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah on January 29, a day before his last day in office.

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In his application filed on Monday, Najib claimed that Sultan Abdullah had issued an addendum to his original decree that would allow the former premier to serve his reduced sentence “under condition of home arrest” instead of Kajang prison, where he is currently being held.

Najib’s application argued that despite the decree being made public, the same was not done for the addendum, which was “immediately or simultaneously issued” on the same day as the decree.

“It must be impressed that the Addendum Order was already in existence since the 29.01.2024,” the application read.

Najib named six respondents in his application, including the home minister, prisons commissioner general, attorney general, the pardons board, minister in charge of law and the director general of legal affairs division.

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Najib was convicted in 2020 of seven counts of corruption and abuse of power involving 42 million ringgit (US$8.9 million) funnelled through SRC International, a former unit of troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

He was jailed two years later after failing in his final attempt to overturn the sentence at federal court.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) described the multibillion-dollar scandal at 1MDB, the state fund founded in 2009 just months after Najib became prime minister, as the largest case of kleptocracy ever uncovered.

Najib still faces at least three other trials linked to 1MDB, of which at least US$4.5 billion is believed to have been siphoned off, according to the DOJ and Malaysian investigators.

On Tuesday, two former managers of Saudi oil exploration company PetroSaudi, went on trial in Switzerland for alleged fraud and money laundering over a scandal years ago linked to 1MDB.

The defendants from PetroSaudi – a Swiss Saudi citizen and a Swiss British national who were not identified by name for privacy reasons – are accused of having created a scheme in 2009 under which 1MDB would set up a joint venture based on false premises.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg, AP