Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia], December 27 : Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted in a major corruption case linked to the 1MDB scandal. The verdict was delivered by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Friday, Al Jazeera reported.
Najib, 72, was found guilty of illegally transferring 2.2 billion Malaysian ringgit (about USD 543 million) from the state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) into his personal bank accounts. The court convicted him on four charges of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering.
Delivering the judgment, Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah rejected Najib's defence that the case was politically driven.
"The contention by the accused that the charges against him were a witch hunt and politically motivated were debunked by the cold, hard and incontrovertible evidence against him that pointed towards the accused having abused his own powerful position in 1MDB, coupled with the extensive powers conferred upon him," the judge said.
Najib misused his roles as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of 1MDB's advisory board to divert public funds for personal benefit more than a decade ago, Al Jazeera reported.
For the abuse of power charges, he was sentenced to 15 years in jail, while each of the money laundering charges carries a five-year sentence. All the jail terms will run at the same time.
This is Najib's second conviction related to the 1MDB scandal. In 2020, he was found guilty of misusing nearly USD 10 million from the fund and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. That sentence was later reduced to six years.
Last year, Najib apologised to Malaysians for his role in the 1MDB controversy. However, during the trial, he claimed that he had been misled by fugitive financier Jho Low, who has been on Interpol's wanted list since 2016.
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