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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
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Malaysia’s Najib Razak on Tuesday earned the dubious distinction of being the nation’s first former prime minister to be jailed, after the Federal Court dismissed his final appeal against his corruption conviction linked to a former unit of scandal-tainted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
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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”.
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“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
Former Malaysian PM Najib’s 12-year corruption conviction upheld over 1MDB scandal
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