As Najib prepares to head home, Anwar revisits memories from behind bars

As Najib prepares to head home, Anwar revisits memories from behind bars

Published: Sep 22, 2026 11:58 AM


As the nation turns its attention to Najib Abdul Razak’s move from Kajang Prison to his bungalow on Jalan Langgak Duta to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim offered a glimpse into his own life in prison.


In a Facebook post late last night, Anwar shared a photograph of himself seated behind a glass partition and iron bars, holding a telephone receiver as he spoke to his family on the other side.

“Memories in Sungai Buloh. Meeting family through the glass, communicating only by phone. A moment that will remain etched in memory,” read the caption with the hashtag #throwback.

Anwar did not say when the photograph was taken.


Still, the image evoked his two stints in prison - experiences that have become intertwined with some of the most turbulent episodes in Malaysia’s political history.

Black eye

The first came after his dramatic fall from power in 1998, when then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad sacked Anwar as deputy prime minister and finance minister amid a bitter political rupture that shook the nation and led to the birth of the reformasi movement.

Police arrested Anwar under the Internal Security Act on Sept 20, 1998, just 18 days after his dismissal.


What followed was one of the most indelible images in Malaysian political history.


When Anwar was brought to court after his arrest, he appeared with a dark bruise around his left eye - the now-infamous “black eye” - after he was assaulted while in police custody.

READ MORE: 'I thought I wouldn't survive' - Anwar recalls 'black eye' incident


The incident triggered widespread public outrage and became a defining symbol of the confrontation between Anwar and the establishment. Then inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor later admitted to assaulting Anwar and was subsequently convicted and fined.

Anwar was sentenced in April 1999 to six years in prison for corruption. In August the following year, he received a further nine-year sentence for sodomy.

Anwar maintained that the charges were politically motivated and fabricated by Mahathir and his allies, allegations the authorities at the time rejected.


He remained behind bars until September 2004, when the Federal Court overturned his sodomy conviction. Having already served his corruption sentence, the ruling paved the way for his immediate release.

Second sodomy conviction

But prison would become familiar territory once again.

In 2015, Anwar was sent back to jail after being sentenced to five years for a second sodomy conviction, this time while Najib was prime minister.

Anwar again maintained that the prosecution was the product of a political conspiracy, while the government and prosecution denied the allegation.

His second imprisonment lasted until May 16, 2018.

That release came under circumstances that would have seemed almost unimaginable two decades earlier.


Just days after Pakatan Harapan defeated Najib in the 14th general election, Anwar received a full royal pardon and walked free.

But perhaps the most remarkable twist was that it happened when Mahathir returned as prime minister for a second time at the age of 92, leading the opposition coalition to its historic electoral victory.

Najib’s RM50 million condition

Meanwhile, Najib’s house arrest hinges on whether he can settle the RM50 million fine, which is part of the conditional pardon.

Najib began serving a 12-year prison term in 2022 after being convicted in his SRC International corruption case. In 2024, the Pardons Board halved his sentence and reduced the RM210 million fine to RM50 million.

In December last year, Najib was convicted of corruption for a second time and sentenced to 15 years in jail over the 1MDB case, together with an RM11.38 billion fine, which he will serve after completing his SRC sentence.