Malaysia Court Orders Najib House Arrest

UMNO paid Najib Razak's 50 million ringgit fine, about $12 to $12.3 million, at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Friday morning after raising it through the Najib Solidarity Fund crowdfunding campaign. Secretary-general Asyraf Wajid Dusuki said the payment fulfilled a core condition of the conditional royal pardon King Sultan Ibrahim granted on September 18. That pardon lets the 73-year-old former prime minister serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest until August 23, 2028. Najib has been imprisoned since August 2022, when Malaysia's top court upheld his conviction in a 1MDB-linked corruption case. A January 2024 partial pardon had already halved his sentence and reduced the fine to 50 million ringgit. The court issued a house arrest order under the pardon conditions for delivery to the prison. Police deployed and closed the road outside his Kuala Lumpur home. WHAT'S CONTESTED: U.S. investigators said as much as $4.5 billion was siphoned from 1MDB, and more than $1 billion allegedly flowed into accounts linked to Najib. The fine payment caused disagreement within Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's governing coalition, which includes UMNO. When Najib will leave prison for house arrest is not yet announced.