KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A Malaysian court Monday rejected former Prime Minister Najib Razak's bid to serve the remainder of his graft sentence under house arrest.
The High Court ruled that a rare royal order issued by the nation's former king was not valid as it wasn't made in accordance with constitutional requirements.
Najib's lawyer told the court they plan to appeal the verdict.
The 72-year-old former prime minister will serve the remainder of his term in prison, scheduled to end in August 2028 after the Pardons Board cut the 12-year sentence by half last year.
Najib is serving time after being convicted in a trial linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB state fund that toppled his government in 2018. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2020 for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving 42 million ringgit ($10.3 million) channeled into his bank accounts from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.
He began his sentence in August 2022 after losing his final appeal, becoming Malaysia's first former leader to be jailed.
He filed an application in April 2024, saying he had information that then-King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah issued an addendum order allowing him to finish his sentence under house arrest. Najib claimed the addendum was issued during a pardons board meeting on Jan. 29, 2024, chaired by Sultan Abdullah, that shortened his punishment and sharply cut a fine.
While there was no dispute over the existence of the addendum order, Judge Alice Loke said the house arrest wasn't raised nor discussed at the Jan. 29 pardons board meeting. The king's prerogative of mercy must be carried out based on the advice of the pardons board under the constitution and cannot be made independently as it would ''invite arbitrary decision,'' she said.
