Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak found guilty of abusing power and money laundering
A Malaysian court has found former prime minister Najib Razak guilty of abuse of power and money laundering in his second major case involving the multibillion-dollar sovereign funds scandal.
Najib, 72, was accused of embezzling around 2.3 billion Malaysian ringgit ($569 million; £422 million) from the country’s sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
On Friday afternoon, a judge found him guilty of four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering. His sentence is still pending.
The former Prime Minister is already in prison after being convicted in another 1MDB-related case years ago.
Friday’s verdict comes after a seven-year legal process that called 76 witnesses to the stand.
The decision, made in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya, was the second blow in the same week to the embattled former leader, who has been in prison since 2022.
On Monday, the court rejected his application to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
But the former prime minister has a loyal base of supporters who claim he was the victim of unfair decisions and have appeared at the hearings to call for his release.
Dozens of people gathered in support of Najib outside the court in Putrajaya on Friday.
The 1MDB scandal made headlines around the world when it emerged a decade ago, involving prominent names from Malaysia to Goldman Sachs to Hollywood.
Investigators estimate $4.5 billion was transferred from the sovereign wealth fund into private pockets, including Najib’s.
Najib’s lawyers claim he was misled by his advisers, particularly financier Jho Low. He maintained his innocence but is still at large.
However, this claim did not convince Malaysian courts, which had previously found Najib guilty of embezzlement in 2020.
That year, Najib was found guilty of abuse of power, money laundering and breach of trust over 42 million ringgit ($10 million; £7.7 million) transferred from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB, to his private accounts.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but last year his sentence was halved.
The latest case concerns a larger sum of money taken from his personal bank account in 2013, also linked to 1MDB. Najib said he believed the money was a donation from the late Saudi King Abdullah; This claim was rejected by the judge on Friday.
Separately, Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, was sentenced to ten years in prison for bribery in 2022. He was released on bail pending an appeal against his conviction.
The scandal had profound effects on Malaysian politics. This led to a historic election loss in 2018 for Najib’s Barisan Nasional coalition, which has governed the country since independence in 1957.
The latest decisions have exposed cracks in Malaysia’s ruling coalition, which includes Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO).
Najib’s failed house arrest bid on Monday was met with disappointment by his allies but celebrated by his critics within the same coalition.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called on politicians on all sides to respect the court decisions.
Former Malaysian MP Tony Pua told the BBC’s Newsday program that the decision would “send a message” to the country’s leaders that “even if you are number one in the country, like the prime minister, you can still be caught for corruption”.
But Cynthia Gabriel, founding director of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption and Nepotism Centre, argued that the country had made little progress in its anti-corruption efforts despite years of reckoning in the wake of the 1MDB scandal.
Public institutions have not been strengthened enough to reassure Malaysians that the politicians they put in power will “genuinely serve their interests” rather than “their own pockets”, he told Newsday.
“Massive corruption continues in different forms,” he added. “We never know if another 1MDB will occur or may have already occurred.”
