Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was jailed today after the country’s highest court upheld his 12-year prison sentence for corruption in the 1MDB financial scandal.
“We were told he was taken to Kazang prison, south of the capital Kuala Lumpur,” his daughter-in-law, Noor Sharmila Sahin, told AFP.
Analysts say the high court’s decision ends Razak’s hopes of returning to politics.
When the verdict was announced, the 69-year-old former prime minister was sullen and looked downcast. He had his wife Rosmach and his two children by his side.
“We consider that the appeal has no basis. We consider the conviction and sentence to be fair,” said court president Maimun Tuan Mat.
“On the basis of what has gone before, we unanimously consider that the evidence presented during the trial shows indisputably that he is guilty of seven charges.”
Maimoun stated that “it would be a gross travesty of justice if a reasonable court, faced with such evidence, (…) concluded that the appellant was not guilty of the seven charges against him”.
Najib Razak was sentenced in July 2020 to 12 years in prison and a fine of 210 million ringgit (47 million euros) over the 1MDB case, a billion-dollar fraud with global ramifications.
Upholding his conviction likely scuppers any plans by the former prime minister to return to politics, analysts said.
“If Mr. Najib is found guilty, he will be barred from running in the next election. All indications are that his political career is over,” James Chin, a professor of Asian studies at the university, told AFP before the verdict was announced. of Tasmania.
Elections are not expected to be held in the country before September 2023.
This major scandal had largely contributed to the electoral defeat of Razak’s coalition in May 2018.
Najib Razak and associates were accused of using money allegedly embezzled from the 1MDB fund, which was originally set up to help grow Malaysia’s economy, to buy luxury items from real estate to art and a yacht.
Despite his first-instance conviction, the former prime minister had not been remanded in custody pending a hearing on his appeal.
Source: RES-MPE
Source: Capital
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