Malaysia’s outgoing king halved the 12-year jail term of Najib Razak, the pardons board said in a statement on Friday, meaning the disgraced former prime minister could be eligible for release on parole next year from a corruption sentence linked to the plunder of state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The decision to slash the term served by Najib, 70, who is in Kajang prison in Kuala Lumpur, was made by the pardons board – chaired by the immediate-past King Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah in his last official duty before passing on Malaysia’s rotating monarchy, the statement said.
Najib was jailed in 2022 and has so far served 16 months of his term.
“After considering opinions and advice, the 61st Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya Federal Territories Pardon Board Meeting has decided on the punishment for YBhg. Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak was given a 50 per cent reduction for the punishment and fines to be paid,” the pardons board said in its statement.
“Hence, it was agreed that Dato’ Seri Mohd Najib Tun Haji Abdul Razak be granted an early release on 23 August, 2028 and his fine of 210,000,000 ringgit be reduced to 50,000,000.”
He could be eligible for release in late 2025 under the Prisons Act which says prisoners can apply for parole after serving half of their sentence. Najib will hit half of the revised six-year tariff at the end of 2025.
The US Department of Justice described the multibillion-dollar scandal at 1MDB, the state fund founded in 2009 just months after Najib became prime minister, as the largest case of kleptocracy it had ever uncovered.
It thrust corruption inside Malaysia’s political and business elites under the international spotlight, with links to notorious names including the hard partying fugitive financier Jho Low, who funded the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”.
The scandal eventually led to his Umno party’s first ever electoral loss in 2018, followed by the spectacular downfall of Najib, the British-educated one-time political star of Malaysia.
Police and anti-corruption officers quickly raided premises linked to Najib and his family, seizing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of luxury handbags, thousands of pieces of jewellery and watches and cash in 26 different currencies.
Najib was convicted of seven counts of corruption and abuse of power involving 42 million ringgit (US$8.9 million) funnelled through SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. He was jailed in 2022 after failing his final appeal to overturn his sentence at the federal court.
Najib, whose wife Rosmah Mansor faces separate corruption charges unrelated to 1MDB, has denied any wrongdoing saying he was a victim of a scheme marshalled by Jho Low and others.
He still faces at least three other trials linked to 1MDB, through which at least US$4.5 billion is believed to have been tapped from the fund, according to the US Department of Justice and Malaysian investigators.