PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia: Jailed former Malaysian leader Najib Razak moved closer on Monday to serving the rest of his sentence at home after an appeal court ruled he could use a royal decree supporting his claim. Najib, 71, is serving a six-year jail term for corruption related to the plunder of sovereign wealth fund 1MDB and faces several other cases linked to the financial scandal that led to his defeat in the 2018 elections.

The purported existence of an order by the former king granting him permission to serve the rest of his current sentence at home has been at the centre of his arguments before the Court of Appeal. A three-member bench ruled 2-1 to grant Najib’s appeal to use the decree to argue his case before the High Court.

“Given the fact that there is no challenge (of the existence of the decree), there is no justification that the order has not been complied with,” said Mohamad Firuz Jaffril, one of the three Court of Appeal judges. The High Court ruled last year that affidavits supporting Najib’s claim about the document’s existence were inadmissible as evidence because they were hearsay, prompting the former premier to challenge the decision.

But new evidence submitted by Najib’s lawyers showed that “the issue of hearsay can no longer stand,” Firuz said. “We are therefore minded to allow the appeal,” he added.

Monday’s ruling means that the case will go back to the High Court, where the decree could be introduced as evidence to bolster Najib’s bid to be placed under house arrest.

Najib was tried and originally sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in July 2020 but the sentence was later halved by a pardons board. Legal expert Goh Cia Yee told AFP that Monday’s ruling is “a legal victory for Najib insofar as he is a step closer to the enforcement of house arrest”. He suggested that it could take “only months” for the High Court to hear the case.

Najib, however, is also defending himself against graft charges tied to more than $500 million in alleged bribes and several counts of money laundering. If convicted, Najib faces hefty fines and sentences of up to 20 years for each count of abuse of power. Allegations that billions of dollars were pilfered from investment vehicle 1MDB and used to buy everything from a superyacht to artwork played a major role in prompting voters to oust Najib and the long-ruling United Malays National Organisation party in the 2018 elections.

The 1MDB scandal sparked investigations in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, where the funds were allegedly laundered. Police deployed heavily around the court on Monday and erected roadblocks, but hundreds of Najib’s supporters rallied outside. — AFP