KUALA LUMPUR: A home placement granted under a conditional pardon is separate from house arrest under the proposed House Arrest Bill, according to the Home Ministry.
Without naming former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the ministry said a conditional pardon remains a prerogative under the Federal Constitution, with its implementation subject to the decisions and conditions set by the pardons authority.
“Therefore, a placement at home made following a conditional pardon decision cannot be directly equated with a house arrest order issued by the court under a specific Act,” it said in a written parliamentary reply to Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng dated Oct 6.
The ministry added that no house arrest order has been issued under any specific law, as the House Arrest Bill is still being finalised and vetted by the Attorney General’s Chambers.
It noted that the Cabinet had agreed in principle to a legal framework allowing eligible remand prisoners to serve their detention at home while awaiting trial, as an alternative to prison custody.
Meanwhile, Legal Affairs Division director-general Datuk Zamri Misman confirmed that the standard operating procedure (SOP) on home detention has been conveyed to Najib.
“Those details have been communicated to Datuk Seri Najib,” he said briefly when approached by reporters at a media briefing on the Parliamentary Services Act 2025 in Parliament yesterday.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, who was also present at the briefing, declined to comment on the matter.
On Sept 19, Attorney General Tan Sri Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar said that the Prisons Department would issue an SOP governing visits and the monitoring of Najib’s movements.
Matters such as CCTV surveillance, electronic tracking bracelets, and the categories of permitted visitors under the proposed law cannot be finalised yet, it added.
On Sept 18, His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, granted Najib a conditional pardon, allowing him to serve the remainder of his SRC International sentence under house arrest until Aug 23, 2028, subject to the full payment of his fine.
