Najib Razak, the incarcerated former prime minister, will have to defend himself against allegations of power abuse and money laundering connected to the scandal-plagued 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, a Malaysian court decided Wednesday.
According to presiding judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, the prosecution was successful in proving that Najib was liable on 21 counts of money laundering and four counts of abuse of power connected to purported bribes totalling 2.27 billion ringgit ($517 million).
“After a maximum evaluation of the evidence, I find that the prosecution has proven the ingredients of the charges,” Sequerah told the court.
Najib was in court on Wednesday, dressed in a navy blue suit, six years after he was originally indicted. He seemed composed after hearing the ruling.
The trial is scheduled to begin on December 2, and the 71-year-old informed the court that he would testify in his defence.
Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Najib’s principal attorney, stated that his client was “extremely disappointed” by the court’s ruling since the defence had made reasons that they believed should be given careful treatment.
“If you were to ask me what do we feel? Extremely disappointed,” he told reporters outside the court complex on Wednesday.
“But we are not giving up, we are going to fight this case, and we are more determined because of the decision today.”
A fine of up to five times the bribe amount and up to 20 years in prison are the penalties for each count of power abuse.
A maximum fine of 5 million ringgit, up to five years in jail, or both may be imposed for each money laundering count.
The hearing took place a few days after Najib apologised for the 1MDB crisis, which occurred during his administration. However, he insisted he was unaware of any illicit payments from the now-defunct state fund.
“It pains me every day to know that the 1MDB debacle happened under my watch as minister of finance and prime minister,” Najib wrote in a statement read by his son Mohamad Nizar last Thursday.
“For that, I would like to apologise unreservedly to the Malaysian people.”
Allegations that billions of dollars were pilfered from investment vehicle 1MDB and used to buy everything from a super-yacht to artwork played a major role in prompting voters to oust Najib and the long-ruling United Malays National Organisation party in 2018 elections.
Investigations into the 1MDB crisis were launched in Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States since it was thought that the money was laundered through their financial systems.
Tanore Finance Corp., which US officials claim was used to embezzle funds from 1MDB, is at the centre of the latest prosecution, one of five against Najib in 2018.
In August 2022, Najib started serving a 12-year prison sentence for crimes involving the embezzlement of public funds from SRC International, a former 1MDB subsidiary. The Malaysian pardons board later reduced the punishment by half. In 2023, the High Court acquitted him in his 1MDB audit tampering prosecution.
Najib, the UK-educated son of one of Malaysia’s founding fathers, still has a pending case of criminal breach of trust involving 6.6 billion ringgit, as well as a money laundering trial involving 27 million ringgit.
The US Justice Department has said more than $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB between 2009 and 2015 by high-level officials at the fund and their associates.
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