A Malaysian court has ordered imprisoned former Prime Minister Najib Razak to enter his defense on 25 additional charges related to the of the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal.
In a hearing this morning, Reuters reported, Judge Collin Lawrence Sequearah of the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the four charges of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering alleged by the prosecution were valid and ticked all of the relevant legal boxes.
“I find the charges fulfil all the legal criteria under the Criminal Procedure Code,” Sequearah said, as per Channel News Asia. “I find that the prosecution has proven the ingredients of the charges.”
Today’s verdict followed 12 days of oral submissions by the prosecution and defense, which concluded on October 3.
Najib is already serving a prison sentence for his role in the scandal involving 1MDB, a state investment fund set up in 2009. Malaysian investigators claim that at least $4.5 billion was drained from the fund, which was subsequently laundered by Najib’s associates through a labyrinth of dummy corporations and bank accounts across the globe.
In 2020, a court found Najib guilty of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering for illegally receiving around $10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. In August 2022, Najib lost his final appeal against the verdict and began a 12-year prison sentence, which has since been halved by a royal pardon.
The second trial began in August 2019. Since then, the prosecution has called more than 50 witnesses in a bid to prove its case that Najib illegally received 2.3 billion ringgit ($526 million) from 1MDB. The current offenses carry a jail term of up to 20 years. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
According to Channel News Asia, Najib’s lawyer Shafee Abdullah told the court that his client will take the stand to defend himself against the charges, saying that he had “nothing to hide.”
The verdict comes less than a week after Najib issued an apology for his mishandling 1MDB corruption scandal, expressing “regret” at what happened on his watch but maintaining his innocence. The former leader repeated his earlier claims that he had no knowledge of any illegal transfers from 1MDB, and claimed that he was misled by others.
“Being held legally responsible for things I did not initiate or knowingly enable is unfair to me and I hope and pray that the judicial process will, in the end, prove my innocence,” he wrote.
The apology, presumably timed to coincide with today’s verdict, has raised concerns that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration is preparing to release Najib, whose United Malays National Organization (UMNO) is a key member of Anwar’s sprawling national unity government. UMNO continues to press hard for Najib’s release, claiming that he has been the subject of a politically motivated witch hunt.
Sure enough, more than 100 supporters of Najib gathered outside the High Court this morning, calling for the release of the man they called “Bossku,” which translates as “my boss.”
Late last week, the government was forced to deny that a new law that would permit house arrest for some offenses is intended to benefit Najib, who has pushed hard to be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence at home. (The law was announced on October 18, a week before Najib issued his apology.) Anwar has also been engulfed in controversy after saying that he “accepted” Najib’s apology but would allow state institutions to do their job. He then poured fuel on the flames when he called his critics bebal – “slow-witted” – and said they were “looking for reasons to be angry.”
Today’s verdict will calm fears that the Malaysian government is maneuvering to get Najib off the hook, at least for now. But a lot can happen between now and the end of the current trial. With the former leader’s defense team sparing no effort to fight the charges and dilute further his current prison sentence, and UMNO keeping up the offstage political pressure, it is far too soon to say that justice has been done.