Malaysia’s attorney general has postponed jailed former prime minister Najib Razak’s transfer to house arrest, in a last-minute intervention after ⁠a court cleared him to leave prison four years into his corruption sentence.

The attorney general’s office said it needed more clarification on his royal pardon after the court gave Najib the ⁠green light earlier on Friday to start his house arrest.

In a statement, the office said that it had sought a “temporary suspension of the execution of the house arrest” pending further investigation into the terms of his pardon, adding Najib would remain in prison.

“During this period, his detention status shall be maintained in his existing place of detention, subject to the powers and instructions of the relevant authorities,” it said.

Najib’s legal team rejected the attorney general’s decision late Friday. “The process of releasing him into house arrest was underway when the AGC statement was issued,” the team said, confirming Najib remained in detention.

“We view the AGC statement as a disregard of His Majesty’s order,” it added.

The court order came 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 (UMNO), reportedly used crowdfunding to cover Najib’s 50 million ringgit ($12m) fine, as his bank accounts have been frozen.

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 cofounded while in power from 2009-2018.

Global News Insight’s Rob McBride, reporting from Kuala Lumpur on Friday, said the decision to grant him house arrest could cause a political stir in Malaysia.

“This has an awful lot of political spin-off, 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.” Global News Insight’s McBride said Najib would be 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.