Should Malaysia's Najib be under house arrest? Jailed ex-PM persists with pursuit of early release
Lawyers for jailed ex-prime minister Najib Razak on Wednesday again sought to persuade a court that the disgraced politician was indeed eligible for house arrest, less than two years into his sentence for plundering scandal-tainted state fund 1MDB, citing a royal decree supposedly issued by Malaysia's former king.
The move comes mere months after the pardons board in February announced that Najib's 12-year jail term would be halved and his fine reduced to 50 million ringgit (US$10.5 million) from 210 million ringgit previously.
Public outrage followed that decision, as Malaysians balked at the perceived leniency being extended to a corrupt former prime minister who was convicted in 2020 of siphoning off some 42 million ringgit (US$8.8 million) from a former unit of 1MDB.
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On Wednesday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court set a date of June 5 to make a decision on whether Najib can proceed with an application to be freed on house arrest, his lawyers said.
Najib has been serving his sentence in Kuala Lumpur's Kajang prison since August 2022.
Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, head of Najib's legal team, argued on Wednesday that Malaysia's previous king had issued a supplementary decree through official channels ordering that Najib be released from prison and placed under house arrest, but the order was not enforced.
"Not only did they not enforce [the order], they concealed it ... you cannot dispute the king's order," Shafee told reporters outside the court after a closed-door hearing before a judge.
Wednesday's hearing follows an earlier application from Najib's legal team to make public the supposed decree which they say allows the 70-year-old to serve out the rest of his term from the comfort of his own home.
Najib argued in that application that the supplementary decree had been issued on the same day that the pardons board announced his reprieve.
The decision to slash his sentence was made by a pardons board chaired by Malaysia's then-king, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, in one of his final acts as the country's monarch - raising questions over the impunity Malaysia's rich and powerful seemingly enjoy, as well as the influence politicians can still wield from behind bars.
The reduction of Najib's sentence is emblematic of a justice system that prioritises the welfare of Malaysia's elite while those without the means to pester for their release are left to languish in prison, critics say.
"The country cannot give a message that politicians who commit offences and are found guilty ... can take 'short cuts' to escape punishment, as though there are two sets of laws for the laymen and the elite," electoral reform group Bersih said in a statement at the time.
The saga has also cast doubt on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's pledge to clampdown on corruption and clean up the country's image.
Anwar's allies, including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner Azam Baki, were cleared of separate corruption charges last year.
Najib was convicted in 2020 of seven counts of corruption and abuse of power involving 42 million ringgit funnelled through SRC International, a former unit of state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
He was jailed two years later after the federal court threw out his last attempt at overturning his sentence.
Najib still faces at least three other trials linked to 1MDB, from which at least US$4.5 billion is thought to have been looted, according to Malaysian investigators and the US Department of Justice.
The US justice department has 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.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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