“A High Court in Malaysia on Tuesday (November 10, 2026) cleared all legal hurdles for the transfer of imprisoned former Prime Minister Najib Razak to his home to serve the remainder of his graft sentence under house arrest,” his lawyer said.
In September, Najib was granted royal clemency, allowing him to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest once he pays a court-imposed fine. Police later sealed off the road leading to his home. That sentence followed a second major trial tied to the 1MDB scandal. Najib is also appealing that sentence, which he is to serve after the end of his first sentence. If his appeal fails, he could return to prison after his house arrest ends. He is Malaysia’s first former leader to be imprisoned under a sentence related to the 1MDB scandal. It marked one of the world’s largest financial scandals, rippling across global markets and triggering investigations in the United States and other countries.
Najib has been behind bars since August 2022, when the Kuala Lumpur High Court upheld his graft conviction linked to a multibillion-dollar looting of the state investment fund 1MDB. Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said on Tuesday all was settled for the former Prime Minister’s transfer to house arrest at his Kuala Lumpur home, where he is to remain until Aug 23, 2028. Najib appeared in court on Tuesday (November 10, 2026); the transfer was expected to take place later in the day. The house arrest covers only Najib’s reduced, six-year sentence in his first trial for graft and not a separate, 15-year sentence handed down last December for corruption and money laundering. Najib, who served as Prime Minister from 2009 to 2018, has denied any wrongdoing.
“It’s a final relief, you know, great sigh to him because he has been waiting for this,” the lawyer said.
