A court in Malaysia has dismissed the request of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, currently under house arrest, to postpone the enforcement of a 15-year prison sentence for corruption. The decision means that the former leader will have to return to prison when the six-year sentence he is already serving for another case concludes in August 2028.
The High Court of Kuala Lumpur has rejected the request of the 73-year-old former head of government to defer the execution of the sentence imposed for charges of abuse of power and money laundering linked to more than 2,000 million ringgit (about 440 million euros) related to 1MDB. He has been imprisoned since August 2022 for this case, a scandal that triggered the defeat of his political party.
Judge Noor Ruwena Nurdin made this decision after not accepting the medical arguments presented by Najib's defense to justify the postponement. The magistrate concluded that the former leader is already receiving the necessary healthcare for the 14 pathologies he suffers from, including hypertension, prediabetes, coronary disease, and peptic ulcer.
"After weighing the interests of the applicant against public interest considerations, the court does not consider that the medical issues raised constitute special circumstances (...) The request is unfounded and, therefore, is dismissed," states the ruling released by the news portal Malaysia Kini.
The judge also rejected the argument of Najib's lawyers regarding the "exorbitant" fine of 50 million ringgits (almost 11 million euros) imposed in the SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption case, for which he is serving a reduced sentence of six years in prison.
Last September, authorities granted the former prime minister a pardon that allowed him to remain under house arrest for the rest of the sentence as long as he paid that financial penalty. If he met that condition, he could stay at his home until August 23, 2028. However, with this new ruling, and pending any potential appeals, Najib will have to re-enter prison once that deadline expires.
The high court sentenced Najib to 15 years in prison in December 2025, although it ordered that this sentence and the six-year one be served concurrently. Thus, the effective time of incarceration would be set at 15 years for a total of 25 offenses.