THE Kuala Lumpur High Court has ruled today (Dec 22) that incarcerated former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak will continue to serve the rest of his six-year jail term at Kajang Prison.
High Court judge Alice Loke Yee Ching decided that the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s (YDPA) addendum for Najib’s house arrest is invalid and cannot be carried out, reported the Malay Mail.
This is because the then Malaysia’s 16th king did not follow the requirements under the Federal Constitution’s Article 42 when he made the add-on order for the 10-term Pekan MP to be placed under house arrest.
“The addendum order was not deliberated nor decided in the 61st Pardons Board meeting. There was no compliance with Article 42, consequently it is not a valid order,” the judge said in her verdict.
Najib who has been in prison since July 2022 had his 12-year jail sentence halved last year by a pardons board chaired by the former YDPA.
But he insisted that the monarch also issued an “addendum order” that converts his sentence to house arrest and he has been seeking to compel the government to confirm the document’s existence and enforce its contents.
Government officials for months denied knowledge of its existence though the former king’s office and a federal lawyer this year confirmed the royal document had been issued.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court’s ruling comes four days before it is scheduled to deliver its verdict in the biggest trial facing Najib over the 1MDB scandal, a state fund he co-founded in 2009.
Any decision in favour of Najib could prove unpopular with the public, especially supporters of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who came to power in 2022 on an anti-corruption platform, according to analysts.
Last week, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the house arrest decision would not have any bearing on the 1MDB trial though he hoped both would go his client’s way. – Dec 22, 2025
News sources: Malay Mail; Reuters
Main image credit: Reuters
