Najib sent to jail after top court upholds sentence

Malaysia’s highest court Tuesday upheld former prime minister Najib Razak’s 12-year jail sentence for corruption in the 1MDB financial scandal, a decision analysts said could slam the door to a political comeback.

Najib’s daughter-in-law Nur Sharmila Shaheen said the family was told he was sent to Kajang Prison, located south of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

“My father-in-law asked us to take care of the family. He remained strong and calm,” she said.

Federal Court chief justice Maimun Tuan Mat, speaking on behalf of a five-judge panel, said the tribunal found Najib’s “complaints as contained in the petition of appeal devoid of any merit”.

“On the totality of the evidence, we find the conviction of the appellant on all seven charges safe. We also find that the sentence imposed is not manifestly excessive,” she added.

The appeals are “unanimously dismissed and the conviction and sentence are affirmed”, Maimun said.

The 69-year-old former prime minister looked somber and dejected, seated by his wife Rosmah and two children as the verdict was read.

Journalists who were in an adjacent room watching the proceedings through video link saw Najib surrounded by family members, friends and party mates before the connection was cut off. Outside the court, teary-eyed family members and supporters hugged each other.During a break in the proceedings, he spoke to supporters, telling them “if I am guilty, please forgive me”.

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. The final ruling on the jail sentence also came four years after his long-ruling party’s shock election defeat in 2018, during which allegations he and his friends embezzled billions of dollars from state fund 1MDB were key campaign issues.

A lower court in July 2020 found Najib guilty of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust over the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($10 million) from SRC International, a former unit of state fund 1MDB, to his personal bank account.