Najib’s mansion in one of the capital’s most exclusive neighbourhoods was declared a federal prison ahead of his homecoming on Tuesday.

Critics said his release from jail undermined efforts to fight corruption and questioned its legal basis, saying Malaysian law made no provision for house arrest.

Najib, who was prime minister from 2009 to 2018, denied wrongdoing but was convicted at two separate trials.

In the first trial he was sentenced in 2020 to 12 years in prison and jailed in 2022. The term was later halved on appeal.

In September, the King of Malaysia granted him a conditional pardon to see out the remaining two years of his sentence at home.

The transfer to his mansion was to take place on Friday but put on hold after the attorney general sought clarification of the royal decree. On Tuesday the high court ruled the house arrest was effective immediately.

Najib’s party paid a $12m fine as part of the terms of the royal pardon allowing him to serve the rest of his term at home.

He was sentenced after being convicted of abuse of power, money laundering and breach of trust over 42 million ringgit ($10m; £7.7m) transferred from SRC International – a former unit of 1MDB – into his private accounts.

Najib is appealing against a 15-year prison sentence, handed down at a second trial in December 2025, in a case involving much larger sums of money. In that case he was convicted of misappropriating nearly 2.3 billion Malaysian ringgit ($569m; £422m) from the nation’s sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

He is due to start serving that sentence after his house arrest ends, which is expected in August 2028.