Malay court brings forward decision on ex-PM Najib's house arrest bid to Dec 22

25/11/2025 17:52

A Malaysian court will decide on December 22 whether jailed former prime minister Najib Razak can serve his sentence under house arrest, just days before delivering its verdict in another major case he faces over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal.



Najib, 72, is serving a six-year jail sentence after being found guilty of graft and money laundering in one of several cases he faces linked to the alleged theft of billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Berhad - a state fund he helped establish in 2009 while he was premier.



The Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed a request from Najib's lawyers to move the date forward during proceedings on Tuesday, Senior Federal Counsel Shamsul Bolhassan told Reuters. The decision had been scheduled for January 5. The house arrest decision will now come four days before the High Court is due to hand down its verdict on December 26 in the biggest trial that Najib faces over the scandal.



The ex-premier is facing four charges of abuse of power and 21 money-laundering charges for receiving illegal transfers of about 2.2 billion ringgit from 1MDB. He denies the charges.