Malaysia’s Najib Razak begins 12-year jail term after apex court upholds guilty verdict in 1MDB-linked case
- The Federal Court has ordered the ex-premier to serve his sentence over several counts of corruption involving SRC International
- The charges are related to Najib’s role in some US$4.5 billion being looted from state investment fund 1MDB and siphoned through his personal accounts
The ruling is a landmark moment in the years-long effort by anti-corruption activists to bring to justice those responsible for the plunder of 1MDB, which was founded and controlled by Najib during his tenure as prime minister from 2009 to 2018.
Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said Najib’s lawyers had failed to prove that the findings of the lower courts were incorrect, nor were they “perverse or plainly wrong so as to warrant appellate intervention”.
“These appeals are therefore unanimously dismissed and the conviction and sentence are affirmed,” Tengku Maimun said when reading out the judgment on behalf of a five-judge panel.
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Former Malaysian PM Najib’s 12-year corruption conviction upheld over 1MDB scandal
Najib in 2020 was sentenced to 12 years’ jail and fined 210 million ringgit (US$46.8 million), after the High Court found him guilty of seven counts of corruption and abuse of power linked to some 42 million ringgit that flowed from SRC International, a former 1MDB subsidiary, to his personal accounts.