(Bloomberg) — A request by former Malaysian premier Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his 1MDB-linked jail sentence under house arrest has the backing of a witness who saw the order allowing him to do so, according to his lawyer.
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“We got an affidavit” from a witness, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, a lawyer for Najib, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. The court will decide whether to hear Najib’s request to serve the remainder of his prison term under house arrest on June 5, he added.
Najib filed earlier in April a judicial review stating that Malaysia’s previous king — who hails from his home state of Pahang — had issued an addendum order allowing his reduced prison sentence be served under house arrest. This information was not made public, according to the former premier, who was imprisoned in 2022 for crimes he committed while in power.
The royal leniency has already sparked a backlash against Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who rose to power in November 2022 on an anti-corruption platform. His commitment to fight graft has come under scrutiny, after the government withdrew 47 criminal charges against a key ally, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
At a Pardons Board meeting on Jan. 29, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah decided to halve Najib’s jail term to six years and reduced his 1MDB-related fines to 50 million ringgit ($10.4 million). It was one of the last acts by the royal ruler, who ended his five-year reign under Malaysia’s rotational monarchy on Jan. 30.
Pardons are granted at the sole discretion of the king, with advice from a board of government officials and appointees.
Najib, in his latest application, requested that the court compel the government to verify the existence of the king’s supplementary order, and, upon confirmation, execute it so that he may be moved to his residence in Kuala Lumpur.
Shafee told reporters outside the court room on Wednesday that they had also received affidavits from other witnesses in their favor, but were unable to file them in time.
Najib, who lost power about six years ago, was convicted on abuse of power and money-laundering charges in relation to the troubled state fund. He was accused of transferring 42 million ringgit from 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn. to his personal account between 2014 and 2015.
He remains on trial for dozens of other criminal charges related to the wealth fund, which became the center of a multibillion dollar scandal that spawned probes across the world.
(Adds details and comments by Najib’s lawyer from third paragraph)
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