KUALA LUMPUR: House arrest is allowed in Malaysia and no new laws are needed to be created for that purpose, says Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
She said that according to the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC), Section 3 of the Prisons Act 1995 allows house arrest as a punishment.
“This section also gives powers to the minister in charge of prisons, which is the Home Minister, to declare any house, building or space as a ‘prison’ to detain those who are sentenced to jail.
“In other words, the minister has powers to declare a home as a legitimate place to detain prisoners, subject to provisions under the Prisons Act 1995,” Azalina said in a written parliamentary reply dated March 5.
Azalina was responding to Lim Lip Eng (PH-Kepong), who asked whether Malaysian laws provide for house arrest, in regard to the case of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Lim also asked if the minutes of the meeting of the Federal Territories Pardons Board discussing Najib’s house arrest application can be declassified.
In response, Azalina said the meetings were declassified after Najib filed a judicial review to compel the government to execute a supplementary decree issued by the former King.
“The document was declassified in January this year,” she added.
Najib, 71, began serving a 12-year jail term in August 2022 for offences linked to the misuse of public money from former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) unit SRC International. The sentence was later halved by the Pardons Board.
In January, the Court of Appeal granted Najib leave to proceed with his judicial review proceedings.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had said in his Budget 2025 speech last year that the government would draft a new law allowing house arrest as an alternative punishment for certain offences.
