Malaysia’s highest court on Tuesday upheld former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s 12-year jail sentence for corruption in the 1MDB financial scandal. With Chief Justice Maimun Tuan Mat having issued a warrant of committal, Najib should immediately go to jail.
“We find the appeal devoid of any merits. We find the conviction and the sentence to be safe,” Maimun said on behalf of a five-judge panel of the Federal Court.
“It is our unanimous view that the evidence during the trial points overwhelmingly to guilt on all seven charges.”
Najib is the UK-educated son of one of Malaysia’s founding fathers who had been groomed for the prime minister’s post from a young age. However, in July 2020 a lower court found him guilty of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust over the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($10.1 million) from SRC International, a former unit of state fund 1MDB, to his personal bank account.
An appellate court in December denied his appeal, prompting him to go to the Federal Court for a final recourse.
Analysts say the decision will likely derail any plans by Najib for a political comeback as he would be unable to run for office.
Najib and his ruling party were voted out in 2018 following allegations of their involvement in a multi-billion-dollar financial scandal at 1MDB where he and his associates were accused of stealing billions of dollars from the country’s investment vehicle and spending it on everything from high-end real estate to pricey art.
Jail sentence for a top official embroiled in corruption is not new in Southeast Asia, but it would be interesting to see if the Malaysian government can put a former Prime Minister behind bars and keep him there, if only to show other countries and their jaded citizens that it is still possible for a country to apply the laws of the land fairly, without fear or favor.
At the very least, the current fate of Najib Razak should make government officials all across the region think twice whenever corruption is involved.*
