In a verdict that could put to the test Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s campaign against corruption, the Kuala Lumpur High Court will pronounce a verdict in two key counts in which former PM Najib Razak has been jailed. Razak is facing corruption charges in the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal and Monday’s verdicts will decide whether he can serve the remainder of his sentence at home.
According to Reuters, Najib, who has been imprisoned since 2022, saw his 12-year sentence reduced by half last year by a pardons board chaired by the former king. However, he maintains that the monarch also issued an “addendum order” commuting the remainder of his sentence to house arrest, and he has been pressing the government to acknowledge the document’s existence and implement its terms.
While the Government officials refused to confirm the existence of such a decree, the former king’s office and federal lawyers have now confirmed that the royal document was issued.
The High Court will announce its verdict today, four days before delivering its verdict in the biggest trial facing Najib over the scandal at 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state fund he co-founded in 2009, according to the Reuters report.
On December 26, the court is also set to rule on whether Najib will be found guilty on four further corruption charges and 21 counts of money laundering linked to the unlawful movement of around 2.2 billion ringgit ($538.69 million) from 1MDB. A conviction could result in a sentence of up to 20 years in prison for each offence, along with fines of up to five times the amount allegedly misappropriated.
Any outcome favourable to Najib may trigger public backlash, particularly among supporters of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who took office in 2022 on a strong anti-corruption mandate. While Anwar has stated that he does not intervene in judicial proceedings, the fact that the prime minister appoints the attorney general has long raised concerns over the independence of the role.
Authorities in Malaysia and the United States have alleged that at least $4.5 billion was siphoned from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014, with more than $1 billion allegedly ending up in accounts connected to Najib. In 2022, after exhausting all legal avenues of appeal, he became the first former Malaysian prime minister to be jailed.
After his party’s defeat in the 2018 election, Najib issued an apology last year for failures in handling the 1MDB affair during his tenure. However, he has repeatedly denied any criminal conduct, insisting he was deceived about the origin of the funds by fugitive financier Jho Low and other senior figures associated with 1MDB.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ZEE News
