Malaysia's top court upholds ex-PM Najib's 12-year sentence in corruption case

Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia], August 23 : Malaysian ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak has lost his final appeal in a graft case linked to the looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state fund, paving way for a 12-year jail sentence for corruption.
The verdict means Najib will have to serve a 12-year sentence, making him the first former prime minister to be jailed, reported Al Jazeera.
Prosecutors say some USD 4.5 billion were stolen from the 1MDB state fund, which was co-founded in 2009 when Najib was the prime minister.
"We find the appeal devoid of any merits. We find the conviction and sentence to be safe," Chief Justice Maimun Tuan Mat said on Tuesday on behalf of a five-judge panel.
"Based on the foregoing, it is our unanimous view that the evidence led during the trial points overwhelmingly to guilt on all seven charges."
The verdict implies that his sentence of 12 years and a fine of approximately USD 45 million is upheld.
The former prime minister has been on bail since 2018, pending the appeal.
The judgement also allays fears that the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), to which Najib belongs, would interfere in the judicial process, reported Al Jazeera.
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 ringgits (USD 10.1 million) from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB, to his personal bank account.
An appellate court in December denied his appeal, prompting him to go to the Federal Court as a final recourse.
The chief justice said, "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".
The Federal Court decision was handed down after a 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, reported Al Jazeera.
Najib is a 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.