Najib’s house arrest explained: 10 questions about pardons, prison powers and what happens next
Also reported by AsiaOne: KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia does not have a specific house-arrest law. Yet the Prisons Department already has powers that can, under certain conditions, allow prisoners to remain outside prison…
Source: Malay Mail · September 24, 2026 at 1:02 PM · AI-assisted report
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KUALA LUMPUR, 24 SEPTEMBER 2026 —
Also reported by AsiaOne: KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia does not have a specific house-arrest law. Yet the Prisons Department already has powers that can, under certain conditions, allow prisoners to remain outside prison while their sentences are still running.
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That distinction has come into focus after former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was granted a conditional pardon on Sept 18 allowing him to serve the remainder of his SRC International jail sentence under house arrest until Aug 23, 2028, subject to payment of a RM50 million fine and other conditions. How does the arrangement work?
What powers do the prison authorities already have, how is that different from a royal pardon, and what happens to Najib's separate 1MDB sentence? Here is a simplified guide based on the Prison Act 1995, the Prisons Regulations 2000, court judgments and news reports.
Najib was granted a conditional pardon allowing him to serve the remainder of his SRC International jail sentence under house arrest until Aug 23, 2028, subject to payment of the RM50 million (S$15.6 million) fine and compliance with other conditions. If Najib breaches any of the conditions, the conditional pardon will be revoked and he must immediately serve the remainder of his sentence in prison. The pardon does not mean Najib was immediately transferred home.
As of Sept 21, Attorney General Tan Sri Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar said Najib had yet to pay the RM50 million fine. Until that condition is fulfilled and the necessary process is completed, Najib remains in Kajang Prison.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has said Malaysia does not yet have a specific law governing house arrest, although such legislation had previously been proposed for eligible remand detainees as part of efforts to reduce prison overcrowding.
The issue was also addressed by the High Court in December 2025, when then High Court judge Alice Loke ruled that an earlier order for Najib to serve his sentence under house arrest was invalid because it had not been deliberated or decided at the relevant Pardons Board meeting.
"In any event, I am of the view that a house arrest order is not capable of execution, there being no legal provision for such mechanism in Malaysia," she said. The judge also rejected Najib's lawyers' argument that Section 43 of the Prison Act could be used to implement that particular house-arrest order. She said Section 43 gives prison authorities discretion over how long
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Related: Kajang Prison · Datuk Seri Najib Razak · Kuala Lumpur