On Friday, Malaysia’s king granted imprisoned former Prime Minister Najib Razak a royal pardon, allowing him to serve the remainder of his prison term under house arrest, prompting an outcry and creating another potential political headache for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Najib, 73, has been imprisoned since August 2022, when Malaysia’s top court upheld a conviction in a case linked to the multi-billion-dollar looting of the state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

In a statement, the government confirmed that Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar had granted Najib a “conditional pardon.” This will allow him to serve the remainder of his prison term under house arrest if he pays a 50 million ringgit fine ($12 million) imposed by the courts. Najib’s sentence expires on August 23, 2028.

The 1MDB state investment fund was established shortly after Najib’s election in 2009. In the ensuing years, Malaysian investigators claim, at least $4.5 billion was drained from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates through a labyrinth of dummy corporations and bank accounts across the globe. The 1MDB scandal helped bring down Najib’s government at the general election of 2018, and has since led to criminal investigations in a number of other countries, including the United States, Switzerland, and Singapore.

Najib’s original conviction was handed down in 2020, when a court sentenced him to 12 years in prison and fined him 210 million ringgit ($51.5 million) for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering. The charges related to Najib’s illegal receipt of around $10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.

Since then, Najib has pursued a range of legal and political tactics in order to reduce his sentence. In early 2024, he succeeded in gaining a royal pardon from Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah of Pahang, the country’s previous king, which halved his prison sentence and reduced his fine to 50 million ringgit. He has also mounted a legal bid to serve his sentence under house arrest, claiming that the royal pardon contained a royal “addendum order” that entitled him to serve the remainder of his sentence at ​home. Accusing the authorities of deliberately ignoring or concealing the order, he initiated legal action aiming to compel them to confirm its existence and to execute it. His legal bid was shot down by the Kuala Lumpur High Court in December 2025.

This royal pardon, based on the sweeping powers granted to the king under Malaysia’s constitution, effectively overrides that decision. As the Associated Press noted, the king’s decision “marked an unprecedented use of house arrest as a form of royal clemency in Malaysia and could renew debate over the rule of law and the treatment of Malaysia’s most prominent corruption convict.”

Indeed, much Malaysian social media commentary about the decision has been shot through with a resigned and weary acceptance that the rich and powerful will always manage to evade accountability.

G25, a prominent civil society coalition, said in a statement that it was “deeply shocked and dismayed” by the decision.

“This does nothing to strengthen public confidence in our criminal justice system. It is a travesty of justice,” the group said, adding that it was difficult to reconcile with the government’s stated commitment to strengthening the rule of law and combating corruption.”

Indeed, the decision has placed Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in a tricky position. While he has spent much of his career crusading against corruption, he is currently governing in a marriage-of-convenience coalition with Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the primary component of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

Given the various corruption scandals that have swirled around UMNO and its key figures, this has been a source of growing discontent within Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) and among its supporters, who argue that the Malaysian leader has been forced to compromise his principles in order to mollify his coalition partner.

This has reached a tipping point over the past year due to a string of corruption scandals, including the dismissal in January of 47 corruption charges against UMNO head Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, a key Anwar ally, and subsequent reports of widespread misconduct at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. This disillusionment arguably contributed to PH’s defeat in a string of important state-level elections over the past year.

In the wake of Najib’s pardon, Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced that he would tender his resignation, stating that the king’s decision, while legitimate, was “difficult to accept” for his Democratic Action Party (DAP), an important member of the PH coalition. The DAP, a party associated with Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese population, has performed poorly in the recent state elections due in part to the growing disillusionment with Anwar’s administration. In the wake of the recent state election results, some within the party have called for it to withdraw from the unity government in order to maintain its credibility as a liberal and reformist party. Last month, the DAP called a special congress to vote on the question. While the party’s members chose to stick with Anwar for now, it remains to be seen whether it will do so over the longer term.

At the same time, Najib’s release into house arrest would be a boon for UMNO and BN, which, while remaining in coalition with PH at the federal level, have competed with it in the recent state elections. In Negeri Sembilan, UMNO cooperated closely with the Islamist party PAS, a key member of the opposition Perikatan Nasional coalition, on a joint Malay unity platform, and won a significant majority in the state assembly. This offered a possible preview of the next general election, which is due by February 2028 – unless the growing PH-BN tensions prompt Anwar to call an earlier snap election.

On Friday, Anwar urged the public to accept the king’s decision, which he said would not weaken the government’s fight against graft and abuse of power.

“I want to stress that the principle of the rule of law remains intact,” he said, according to the AP. “Our commitment to taking action against all cases of corruption is not affected, and this does not mean the country should bow to practices of embezzlement and corruption.”

It remains unclear for now whether Najib will be able to fulfill the conditions necessary to secure his release from prison. A statement issued by Najib’s legal team yesterday said that the former leader was “profoundly grateful” to those who had offered their support and assistance. However, the question of whether he will be able to pay the required fine “does not lie in his own hands” given that many of his assets have been frozen due to the ongoing court cases.

“In those circumstances, our client is presently taking advice and considering his options as to how best to give effect to the condition,” the statement added.

After the royal clemency was announced, UMNO launched a “solidarity fund” in order to help, which had raised more than 1 million ringgit as of Saturday.

In the statement, Najib’s lawyers said that their client “does not wish the party, its members and supporters, or members of the public to feel burdened or obliged on his account.” He nonetheless remained “profoundly grateful” to all those who had “chosen to offer their support and assistance.”

As things stand, a lot of uncertainties surround Najib’s house arrest situation. Legal experts say that Malaysia does not have rules governing house arrest, and even if these are hastily put in place, it remains unclear how any potential breaches would be monitored or enforced.

However, there is a broad consensus that the pardon is unlikely to apply to the separate 15-year prison sentence handed down to Najib in a larger 1MDB-related trial late last year. In this case, judges found Najib guilty of 25 charges, including four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering relating to 1MDB funds worth 2.27 billion ringgit ($574 million). Najib was also hit with a massive fine of 11.38 billion ringgit ($2.9 billion).

That prison term is due to begin after he completes his current sentence. Najib has appealed the verdict.