Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak left prison on Friday, according to an Agence France-Presse journalist, after his party announced that he had paid a fine of $12 million, allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence in a corruption case under house arrest.

Published on: 06/11/2026 - 11:05

The 73-year-old former prime minister was imprisoned on charges related to the embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars from the now-defunct Malaysian Sovereign Development Fund (1MDB).

But King Sultan Ibrahim granted a “conditional pardon” to Abdul Razzaq in September, “allowing him to complete the remainder of his sentence under house arrest until August 23, 2028,” on the condition that he pay the fine, according to what lawyers in the office of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a statement.

“This morning the party completed all payment procedures to the High Court in Kuala Lumpur,” Najib Razak’s party, United Malays National Organization (Umno), said in a statement Friday, referring to the 50 million ringgit ($12 million) fine.

She added, "The party officially announces the closure of the account for the Solidarity Fund with Najib Abdul Razzaq, which was established to receive citizen contributions. There is no longer a need to collect public donations for this purpose."

Najib's assistant, Ahmed Lutfi Azhar, also confirmed that the fine had been paid, while his lawyer, Farhan Shafie, said that they had obtained the necessary documents to transfer him from prison.

Embezzled funds

Late last year, a Malaysian judge rejected a request submitted by Abdul Razzaq to complete his sentence under house arrest, after he was sentenced to participate in one of the largest plundering operations of sovereign funds in the world.

In July 2020, Abdul Razzaq was sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges related to the embezzlement of huge sums from SRC International, a subsidiary of the 1MDB fund, before the Amnesty Committee reduced the sentence period by half, and the fine imposed on him to 50 million ringgit.

The former prime minister was scheduled to complete the sentence related to this case by August 2028.

However, days after his request to reduce his sentence to house arrest in December 2025 was rejected, Abdul Razzaq faced an additional 15 years in prison in a separate case also linked to the 1MDB corruption scandals.

He was also imposed a fine of 11.4 billion ringgit on charges of complicity in plundering billions of dollars from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, which was later closed.

Abdel Razzaq appealed the decision to imprison him for an additional 15 years, which will not take effect until the first six-year prison term has passed.

Najib is the son of one of Malaysia's founding fathers, and was prepared to assume leadership from a young age, but he suffered a resounding fall from power as popular anger escalated over the corruption scandal.

Since his loss in the 2018 elections, investigations conducted under successive governments have led to corruption charges being brought against him and his wife, Rosmah Mansoor.

Public prosecutors said that Najib exploited his positions as Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the 1MDB Fund, to transfer huge sums of money from the fund to his personal accounts.

According to investigators, the fund's money was used to buy real estate, a luxury yacht, and valuable works of art, including a painting by Monet and another by Van Gogh.

The fugitive financier Jho Low, who masterminded the looting of the fund, one of the largest financial thefts in modern history, is still at large.

The fund was established in 2009 during the era of Abdul Razzaq, and was supposed to be a tool for financing major investments in infrastructure and development.

But Low quickly became, thanks to his closeness to Najib and other senior officials, a central figure in schemes that transferred about $4.5 billion from the fund through shell companies and complex financial transactions, according to American and Malaysian prosecutors.

The case has sparked investigations around the world, including in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.

© 2026 AFP

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