Malaysia court denies ex-PM Najib's bid to serve jail sentence at home

Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak, jailed for corruption in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, will learn on Monday if he can serve the remainder of his sentence at home in the first of two rulings this week that will test current premier Anwar Ibrahim's campaign against graft.

 A Malaysian court on Monday denied a bid by jailed former prime minister Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his sentence at home, saying a royal order allowing the move was not made according to the correct procedures.

Najib, who has been in prison since 2022 for corruption related to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, had his 12-year jail sentence halved last year by a pardons board chaired by the country's former king.

But he insists the monarch also issued an "addendum order" that converts his sentence to house arrest, and he has been seeking to compel the government to confirm the document's existence and enforce its contents.

Government officials, including members of the pardons board, for months denied knowledge of its existence, though the former king's office and a federal lawyer this year confirmed the royal document had been issued.

The king plays a largely ceremonial role in Malaysia but can pardon convicted people as one of the discretionary powers granted to him by the federal constitution.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court on Monday said the existence of the document was not in dispute, but the order was not legally enforceable as it was not made with the consultation of the country's pardons board, as required under the constitution.

While Malaysia's rulers are allowed to issue pardons according to their discretion, their powers are not without limits, Judge Alice Loke said.

"The addendum order was not deliberated nor decided at the pardons board meeting ... Consequently, it is not a valid order," Loke said.

The court decision comes four days before the court reaches a verdict in Najib's biggest trial concerning the scandal at 1Malaysia Development Berhad, the state fund he co-founded in 2009.

US investigators say at least $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB by the fund's high-level officials and their associates. More than $1 billion allegedly flowed into bank accounts owned by Najib, who co-founded the fund in 2009.

On December 26, the court will decide whether to convict Najib of four additional charges of corruption and 21 counts of money laundering involving the illegal transfer of about 2.2 billion ringgit ($538.69 million) from 1MDB.

Najib has maintained that he is innocent of all wrongdoing in relation to 1MDB.

If found guilty, he could face a maximum of 20 years' imprisonment on each charge, as well as a fine of up to five times the value of the alleged misappropriations.