Najib Razak Wins House Arrest Pardon if He Pays 50 Million Ringgit Fine

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 18

Malaysia’s monarch granted former Prime Minister Najib Razak a conditional pardon, allowing the 73-year-old to leave prison and serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest at his luxury mansion.
50 million ringgit — about $12.2 million — is the condition for the move, after Najib spent more than two years seeking home confinement that courts said Malaysian law did not provide for.
Najib was convicted in 2020 over the 1MDB scandal, in which millions were stolen from the state fund; the broader case also triggered U.S. legal action involving Goldman Sachs.
Zahid Hamidi, Najib’s party ally and Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, said the party would launch a fundraising drive to help pay the fine.
The clemency decision has intensified criticism that Malaysia’s political elite receive preferential treatment in major corruption cases.