Najib gets 12 years in prison for corruption
Print Edition
MALAYSIA’S former leader, Najib Razak, was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 12 years in jail yesterday in the first trial over a multi-billion-dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB that stretched to the Gulf states and Hollywood.
In a case widely seen as a test of the nation’s resolve to stamp out corruption and which could have big political implications, high court judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years and a fine of 210 million ringgit (US$49 million) on a charge of abuse of power.
Najib, 67, also received 10 years in jail on each of three charges of criminal breach of trust and three charges of money laundering for illegally receiving nearly US$10 million from SRC International, a former unit of the state fund.
“After considering all evidence in this trial, I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge said. He ordered the jail terms to run concurrently.
The judge allowed a request by Najib’s lawyers to delay the jail sentence and the financial penalty pending appeal, but asked Najib to post additional bail and report to a police station twice a month.
Najib had pleaded not guilty, and said he would appeal the verdict in Malaysia’s Federal Court if convicted. The verdict could potentially be partially or fully overturned by the higher court on appeal, though that could take years.
The nearly US$10 million in the SRC case is a fraction of the funds Najib is alleged to have misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the state fund.
Prosecutors say more than US$1 billion of 1MDB funds made its way into Najib’s personal accounts, over which he faces a total of 42 criminal charges. Najib had led the country for almost a decade before losing the 2018 election.
US and Malaysian authorities say a total of US$4.5 billion is believed to have been stolen from 1MDB, a fund Najib founded to promote economic development, and used by his associates to buy art, a superyacht and fund the “Wolf of Wall Street” movie.
Prosecutors have also said US$27 million was used to buy a pink diamond necklace for Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and some of the money went into war chests for Najib’s election campaigns.
Allegations of corruption over 1MDB have hung over Najib for more than five years.
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