Malaysia, Dec 27: Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after the Kuala Lumpur High Court found him guilty in one of the most consequential corruption cases in the country’s history, linked to the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
The verdict was delivered on Friday, with the court holding that Najib had illegally diverted vast sums of public money from the state investment fund into his personal bank accounts. Prosecutors said about 2.2 billion Malaysian ringgit, or roughly USD 543 million, was misappropriated during his tenure.
Najib was convicted on multiple charges, including abuse of power and money laundering. While pronouncing the sentence, High Court Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah rejected the defence’s claim that the case was politically motivated, ruling that the evidence clearly showed Najib had exploited his position for personal gain.
According to the prosecution, Najib abused his authority as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of the 1MDB advisory board to exercise control over the fund and siphon off public money more than a decade ago. The court imposed a 15-year jail term for abuse of power, while additional sentences were awarded for the money laundering charges. All prison terms will run concurrently.
This is Najib’s second major conviction related to the 1MDB scandal. In a separate case in 2020, he was found guilty of misappropriating nearly USD 10 million from the fund and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, a term that was later reduced.
Although Najib issued a public apology to Malaysians last year over the 1MDB controversy, he maintained throughout the trial that he had been misled by fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, commonly known as Jho Low, who has been on Interpol’s wanted list for several years.
The 1MDB scandal is widely regarded as one of the largest financial fraud cases in the world, triggering major political, legal and institutional repercussions in Malaysia and prompting investigations across multiple countries.
