Royal

Najib transitions to house arrest after his party UMNO raises $12m fine via crowdfunding.

Malaysia’s jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak has been allowed to transfer to house arrest after his party paid a $12m fine following a royal pardon.

Najib’s lawyer, Farhan Shafee, told reporters on Friday that he has been given the order and will be “delivering that order to the Kajang prison right now”.

Najib, who denies any wrongdoing, has been held in jail since 2022, following his conviction for corruption and embezzlement of billions of dollars connected to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state investment fund he co-founded while in power from 2009-2018.

His house arrest could start on Friday if everything goes to plan, Shafee said.

The order comes after Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim agreed in September to pardon Najib, allowing him to serve the rest of his sentence at home.

Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organisation, has reportedly used crowdfunding to cover Najib’s 50 million ringgit ($12m) fine, as his bank accounts have been frozen.

Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said this decision could cause a political stir in Malaysia.

“This has an awful lot of political spinoff, potentially impacting the political scene here in Malaysia,” he said. “But also there’s a lot of questions being asked about how the current politics have impacted this pardon.”

He said Anwar Ibrahim, the prime minister of Malaysia, has publicly raised concerns about the pardon within his capacity as the “anticorruption figurehead” in the country. But there has been speculation that he may have, behind the scenes, helped the pardon go through due to pressure from Najib’s party.

Investigators say about $4.5bn was stolen from the 1MDB state fund and more than $1bn of it was linked to Najib.

Najib has said he was solely blamed for a highly complicated global fraud scheme and has denied any wrongdoing.

Separately, he was also convicted in a major 1MBD trial in Malaysia, where he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $2.5bn fine for money laundering and the abuse of power.

He has appealed the case and his lawyers requested that the jail term and fines be halted, citing poor health and his inability to pay the fine.

A judge rejected his request in September, saying “the gravity of the offence ⁠is a more important public interest consideration.” Reporting from Kuala Lumpur, Al Jazeera’s McBride said Razak is due to return to jail to serve out this sentence as soon as his house arrest ends in 2028, but it is unclear at this stage if this will happen.

Royal Marine commandos providing security at Wimbledon would like “nothing more than to sort out” disruptive social media influencers at the prestigious tournament, its chief executive has joked.

US Open organisers accredited 100 influencers and content creators for this year’s tournament.

But when a match involving two-time champion Naomi Osaka was disrupted by a group of influencers conducting a photo shoot, it prompted a debate about tennis etiquette.

Richard Atkinson, interim chief executive at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, said Wimbledon did not offer accreditation to influencers and sources have indicated to BBC Sport that is unlikely to change in the near future.

While Atkinson acknowledged that influencers were a “crucial part of the marketing mix” and to ban them from attending the tournament entirely would be “nonsense”, he said any that were brought in by brands would be “tightly chaperoned”.

He also backed the traditional “self-policing” ethos at SW19, whereby fans respect the action.

After the disruption at the US Open, world number four Coco Gauff said it was important to welcome a “new demographic” to the sport, but said: “I think it’s just, follow the etiquette of the sport. That’s all.”

And Wimbledon’s boss made it clear he does not expect to see a repeat at the All England Club.

“We don’t have a category of accredited people called influencers,” Atkinson told a panel at Leaders Week London.

“That said, clearly influencers are a crucial part of building your brand around the world in the third decade of the 21st century.

“What you have to do is keep them under control. One of our big partners, Polo Ralph Lauren, will have their influencer, but they are all tightly chaperoned.”

He said the atmosphere at the US Open is “very New York City”, adding: “It’s dead easy for someone who has just bought a ticket to show up there with their ring lights and literally start broadcasting in the middle of a match.

“If you tried to do that at Wimbledon, I think you’d probably have some Royal Marine Commando…”

He then joked: “We do have military. And they would like nothing more, I suspect, than to sort out some influencer.”

Fans will also not be allowed to bring portable ring lights – a piece of equipment used by content creators – to SW19.

Atkinson did, however, point out that the media landscape has changed, and suggested there is a place for embracing influencers and content creators to ensure Wimbledon remains relevant.

“It’s just a crucial bit of the marketing mix, of course it is,” he said.

“We’re not in the world of newspapers and television anymore, right? The world has changed. But it’s just really important, it’s a bit of a cliched expression, you’ve got to sort it out in a Wimbledon way. But to say “we’re not going to have any influencers at Wimbledon”, it’s obviously nonsense.”

“Our marketing team work meticulously to make sure they are working in a way that is consistent with our Wimbledon brand and keeps that magic that I was referring to earlier.”

Police say the incident is not connected to ongoing investigations at the RAF Fairford airbase.

Police in the United Kingdom say they have arrested and charged a member of the Royal Navy accused of working with an unnamed foreign power after an investigation by counterterrorism police.

Teddy Young, 24, was charged with two offences under the National Security Act for allegedly obtaining protected information and preparing to transfer it for the benefit of a foreign power.

In a statement, authorities alleged that between November 2024 and May 2025, Young “obtained, copied, recorded or retained protected information, intending the conduct to benefit a foreign power… contrary to section 1 of the National Security Act 2023″.

Young is due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court later on Thursday.

“These are very serious charges against a serving member of the armed forces,” Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said in a statement.

“We have worked extremely closely with relevant operational colleagues within the Ministry of Defence as our investigation has progressed to ensure appropriate measures could be taken to mitigate any potential risks linked to this matter,” she added.

UK media reported that the officer was arrested at his home in Bedfordshire on Tuesday before he was taken into custody in London.

The police clarified that the case is not related to the ongoing investigation into an incident at the RAF Fairford airbase.