Kuala Lumpur (VNA) - Malaysia’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Najib Razak on January 6 won an appeal to pursue his bid to serve his remaining corruption sentence under house arrest.
Najib, who was jailed over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, had appealed against a lower court decision last July that dismissed his bid to confirm the existence of and execute a royal order that he said entitled him to house arrest.
In an application in April last year, Najib said he had clear information that then-King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah issued an addendum order allowing him to finish his sentence under house arrest. He claimed the addendum was issued during a pardons board meeting on January 29 last year chaired by Sultan Abdullah that also cut his 12-year jail sentence by half and sharply reduced a fine. But the High Court threw out his bid three months later.
The Court of Appeals on January 6 ordered the High Court to hear the merits of the case. The decision came after Najib’s lawyer produced a letter from a Pahang state palace official confirming that Sultan Abdullah had issued the addendum order.
Najib set up the 1MDB development fund shortly after he took office in 2009. Investigators allege at least 4.5 billion USD was stolen from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates through layers of bank accounts in the US and other countries. He is still fighting graft charges in the main trial linking him directly to the scandal./.
