Malaysia’s national palace says it is clear the imprisoned former prime minister Najib Razak must serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest, warning that any challenge to the order amounts to defying the king. The palace statement came a day after the attorney general temporarily blocked Najib’s transfer from prison to house arrest, saying more legal clarification was needed. Najib left prison on Friday after his political party paid a 50 million ringgit fine required under a royal pardon. But he was sent back to prison hours later following the attorney general’s intervention. Najib has been jailed since August 2022, after Malaysia’s top court upheld his conviction in his first graft trial linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of state investment fund 1MDB. In September, the king granted him conditional clemency, allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence at home once the fine was paid. The palace said all conditions were fulfilled and the pardon order is clear, explicit and without ambiguity. The house arrest applies only to Najib’s reduced six-year sentence from the first case. It does not cover a separate 15-year prison sentence imposed in December 2025 for corruption and money laundering in a second 1MDB-linked trial. He is appealing that later sentence. Investigators say at least $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB and laundered through layers of bank accounts in the U.S. and other countries. Najib was originally sentenced to 12 years and fined 210 million ringgit in 2020 over abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving 42 million ringgit channeled into his bank accounts from SRC International. Latest status: Najib was briefly transferred toward house arrest on Friday but was returned to prison after the attorney general intervened, while the palace insists the conditional pardon must be followed.