(Bloomberg) -- A Malaysian court allowed former Prime Minister Najib Razak to pursue a petition to serve the rest of his jail sentence in his home for crimes related to troubled wealth fund 1MDB.
Najib may resume his bid for house arrest at the High Court, the Court of Appeal ruled on Monday, overturning an earlier decision to reject his petition. The decision by the three-person bench wasn’t unanimous.
Court of Appeal Judge Mohd Firuz Jaffril said the issue of hearsay “no longer stands” after Najib submitted additional evidence to the courts. Najib’s lawyer Shafee Abdullah earlier told the court that he filed an affidavit that includes an order by Malaysia’s former king allowing Najib to serve the rest of his prison term at home.
Najib is pushing for house release after having his 12-year sentence halved last January, a move that drew criticism of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his vows to campaign against corruption. Anwar said that decision had nothing to do with him.
Anwar depends on the support the United Malays National Organisation, or UMNO, which is a key coalition partner and wants to see its former leader Najib walk free.
Najib and his legal team had claimed that the former king issued an additional order allowing for house arrest when the royal halved the sentence. They said Sultan Abdullah Ahmad of Pahang state gave the order in January last year before handing over duties to Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor state under Malaysia’s unique rotational monarchy.
Sultan Abdullah hasn’t publicly commented on the matter.
Najib sought a court order in April to compel the government to verify and execute the alleged directive by the former king allowing him to be put under house arrest. The High Court dismissed his application in July, saying it was based on hearsay, prompting him to file the appeal.
The latest developments on Monday could lead to further criticism of Anwar, who rose to power two years ago on an anti-corruption platform. Najib, who remains on trial for other alleged 1MDB-related crimes, was discharged in November from a separate 1MDB case, a decision that led to criticism from pro-reformist group Bersih.
Thousands of supporters turned up outside the court house on Monday, local media reported, suggesting that Najib remains popular among the Malay majority in the Southeast Asian country.
The national palace said on Friday that any prisoner seeking a pardon or commuted sentence must submit an application to the Pardons Board chaired by the current king for its next meeting. Najib has previously said he is “seriously thinking” of re-applying for a full pardon.
Najib has been in jail since August 2022 after he was found guilty of corruption while he was in power and chairing the advisory board of 1Malaysia Development Bhd., known as 1MDB. He was accused of transferring 42 million ringgit ($9.3 million) from a 1MDB subsidiary to his personal account between 2014 and 2015.
A Malaysian court separately discharged Najib from one of his 1MDB cases in November after the prosecution failed to provide the defense team with documents related to the trial.
A month before that, the 71-year-old politician entered his defense against another four counts of abusing his position to obtain 2.3 billion ringgit of 1MDB funds, as well as 21 counts of money laundering. He has denied wrongdoing, saying he believed the funds that entered his personal bank accounts were donations from a Saudi Arabian royal.
(Updates throughout with court decision)
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