A Malaysian court has sentenced former Prime Minister Najib Razak to 15 years in prison after finding him guilty of abusing power and laundering billions of naira linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
The judgment was delivered on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, marking the biggest corruption case ever concluded against a former Malaysian leader.
Najib, 72, was convicted on four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving about 2.28 billion Malaysian ringgit, equivalent to roughly $554m, siphoned from the state investment fund.
The presiding judge, Collin Lawrence Sequerah, ordered Najib to serve 15 years in jail for the abuse of power charges and five years for each money laundering offence. The sentences will run at the same time.
Najib has already been in prison since August 2022 after a separate conviction linked to 1MDB, and he has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
While reading the verdict, the judge dismissed claims by the defence that Najib was deceived by his close associate, businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low.
“The evidence clearly points to the fact that this was no coincidence but was evident of a relationship in which Jho Low operated as a proxy or agent of the accused with regard to the running of the affairs of 1MDB,” Sequerah said.
He added that the argument that Najib was “misled and duped by management and by Jho Low is unmeritorious”.
Prosecutors told the court that Najib abused his positions as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of the 1MDB advisory board to move huge sums of money into his personal bank accounts.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said, “The accused wielded absolute financial, executive and political control,” adding that Najib was “the single most powerful decision-maker”.
Investigators said money diverted from the fund was used to buy luxury homes, a superyacht and expensive artworks.
Judge Sequerah also rejected claims that the funds came from Middle Eastern donors, describing the explanation as “a tale that surpassed even those from the Arabian Nights”.
1MDB was launched in 2009 shortly after Najib became prime minister, with the aim of boosting Malaysia’s economic development. However, it later became the centre of a global corruption scandal, with investigators estimating that more than $4.5bn was stolen between 2009 and 2015.
Jho Low, believed to have played a central role in the scandal, is still on the run.
Najib’s fall from power began after he lost the 2018 general election, as public anger grew over the scandal. Since then, he and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, have faced several graft cases.
Although Najib has apologised for the 1MDB scandal happening under his watch, he has continued to insist that he had no knowledge of the illegal transactions.
His lawyers have maintained that he did not receive a fair trial, but the court rejected their arguments.
