Prisons Dept says still waiting for official notice before Najib’s house arrest can start

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s move from prison to house arrest has yet to get the formal green light from the Malaysian Prisons Department, which says it is still waiting for official written notification of the conditional pardon granted to the former prime minister.

The Federal Territories Pardons Board granted Najib a conditional pardon on Friday, allowing him to serve the remainder of his SRC International sentence under house arrest until August 23, 2028, subject to conditions including payment of a RM50 million fine.

“In this regard, in line with the statement by Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution smail, Minister of Home Affairs on September 19, 2026, the Home Ministry and Malaysian Prisons Department are still awaiting official written notification regarding the decision before any further action to implement the decision can be determined.

“Any notification and official documents relating to the Pardons Board’s decision will be conveyed through the appropriate official channels before being submitted to the Malaysian Prisons Department for further action,” the department said in a statement today.

The department said it was ready to carry out any official instructions received from the relevant authorities in accordance with the law, prison regulations and procedures currently in force.

It also said any decision or instruction received would be carried out in an orderly, professional and transparent manner.

The department urged all parties to refer to official sources and refrain from speculating about how the decision would be implemented.

Najib, who has been held at Kajang Prison since August 2022, is serving a six-year sentence after the Federal Territory Pardons Board in 2024 reduced his original 12-year jail term and RM210 million fine for the SRC International case to six years and RM50 million.

The conditional royal pardon allows him to serve the remainder of that sentence under house arrest, but the RM50 million fine remains among the conditions attached to the decision.