Former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak’s 12-year-jail sentence was upheld by Malaysia’s highest court on Tuesday.
Razak was first prosecuted over the corruption in the 1MDB financial scandal. Chief Justice Maimun Tuan Mat also issued a warrant of committal, which a lawyer said means Najib is going immediately to jail.
The 69-year-old former prime minister looked somber and dejected, surrounded by his wife Rosmah and two children as the verdict was read.
“We find the appeal devoid of any merits. We find the conviction and 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 led during the trial points overwhelmingly to guilt on all seven charges.”
“it would have been a travesty of justice of the highest order if any reasonable tribunal, faced with such evidence staring it in the face, were to find that the appellant is not guilty of the seven charges preferred against him,” said Maimun.
The Federal Court decision was handed down after the tribunal threw out a last-minute move by Najib’s lawyers to recuse the chief justice from hearing the case, alleging bias on her part.
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 ($10.1 million) from SRC International, a former unit of state fund 1MDB, to his personal bank account
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