DST News: Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak has been found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison in his second major case linked to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB corruption scandal.
On Friday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court convicted Najib, 72, on all 21 counts of money laundering and four counts of abuse of power, ruling that he illegally transferred 2.2 billion ringgit (about $543m) from the state investment fund 1MDB into his personal bank accounts.
Delivering the verdict, Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah rejected Najib’s claim that the charges were politically motivated, saying the evidence clearly showed he had abused his authority and extensive control over 1MDB while serving as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of the fund’s advisory board.
Najib was sentenced to 15 years for the abuse of power charges and five years for each money laundering offence, with all sentences to run concurrently.
This case is Najib’s second conviction related to 1MDB. In 2020, he was found guilty of misappropriating nearly $10m from the fund and was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison, later reduced to six.
The latest trial, which directly involved 1MDB entities and far larger sums of money, lasted seven years and included testimony from 76 witnesses. Prosecutors accused Najib of orchestrating complex financial transfers to benefit himself, while Najib maintained he had been misled by fugitive financier Jho Low, who has been sought by Interpol since 2016.
Judge Sequerah said evidence showed a close relationship between Najib and Low, describing Low as a key intermediary acting on Najib’s behalf. The court also dismissed Najib’s claim that some of the funds were legitimate donations from Saudi royalty.
The 1MDB scandal, which surfaced in 2015, played a major role in ending the long rule of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in 2018. Despite the convictions, Najib retains support among some Malaysians, and the case remains politically sensitive, particularly as UMNO is now part of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s governing coalition.
Analysts say the verdict is a crucial test of Malaysia’s judicial independence and political accountability, with the outcome likely to have lasting implications for the country’s political landscape as Najib prepares to appeal.
Source: Aljazeera
