Malaysian court on Monday (December 22, 2025) rejected former Prime Minister Najib Razak's bid to serve the remainder of his graft sentence under house arrest. The 72-year-old former Prime Minister will serve the remainder of his term in prison, scheduled to end in August 2028 after the Pardons Board cut the 12-year sentence by half last year. He began his sentence in August 2022 after losing his final appeal, becoming Malaysia's first former leader to be jailed. Separately on Friday (December 26, 2025), the former leader will also find out if he is acquitted or convicted in a second graft trial that ties him directly to the 1MDB scandal. A national outrage over the 1MDB scandal led to the historic 2018 election defeat of the party that had governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957.

Source: The Hindu December 22, 2025 03:38 UTC