Former Malaysia PM Najib Razak found guilty on all charges in corruption trial

The stunning verdict has blown apart a key defence in the first of five corruption trials faced by former Malaysian leader Najib Razak .

Najib Razak arrives at the Duta Court complex in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has been found guilty of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering and sentenced to 12 years’ jail in a verdict that claims the biggest scalp by far from the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal that brought down his government.

The judgment on Tuesday is a body blow to the patrician politician, a son and nephew of former prime ministers and now the first former premier of Malaysia to be tried and convicted of criminal charges.

It also tears apart a key defence in the first of five corruption trials faced by Najib in relation to the international financial scam that sparked investigations in five countries and was described by former US attorney-general Jeff Sessions as “the worst form of kleptocracy”.

It is a victory for Malaysian reformists who have been closely watching the trial as a test of whether the country is sliding back into the graft and cronyism they say characterised Najib’s decade in power before the shock defeat of his United Malays National Organisation Party-led government in 2018.

Najib, who remains an MP, now faces a potentially years-long appeals process as he challenges his prison sentence and a $69m fine. He was released on bail of one million ringgit ($330,000). He will be barred from contesting elections during the appeals.

He also has three further pending trials on 35 corruption charges related to the misappropriation of at least $US4.5bn from the 1MDB state development fund and alle¬gations he received close to $US1bn in laundered funds into his personal accounts. Najib denies all wrongdoing.

Last week, he was ordered to pay $556m in unpaid taxes from his last seven years as prime minister in a judgment his lawyer on Tuesday described as “oppressive” and a “ridiculous sum” during mitigation arguments ahead of sentencing, which had not yet been announced.

The 67-year-old has said he believed funds transferred into his accounts were political donations from a Saudi royal and he was deceived by associate turned fugitive millionaire businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) and others.

Mr Low, who is believed to be in hiding in China, maintains his innocence, although last year he struck a $1.4bn settlement deal with the US government in which he agreed to surrender luxury real estate in London, New York and Beverley Hills, paintings and a private jet.

High Court judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali on Tuesday found Najib guilty on all seven charges related to allegations that 42 million ringgit ($13.8m) was transferred from the 1MDB-affiliated SRC International into the then prime minister’s personal bank accounts between December 24, 2014 and February 6, 2015.

Justice Nazlan found Najib played a “pivotal role” in setting up the company and in rushing through loans from Malaysia’s KWAP retirement fund to the new company. He also ruled Najib’s claim to have been deceived by Jho Low “farfetched” and that the former prime minister “with dishonest intention had misappropriated and used for himself the 42 million ringgit”.

“I therefore find the accused guilty and convict the accused on all seven charges,” he said.

Justice Nazlan sentenced Najib to 12 years on the single abuse of power charge, and 10 years for each of the three criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges but ordered that the sentences be served concurrently. He ordered the former PM to pay RM210 million ($A69 million) in fines or serve an extra five years’ jail.

Lead defence lawyer Shafee Abdullah had pleaded for leniency for his client, who he said had already “gone through a series of punishments”. “He says that if he was at fault, he was only at fault in trusting people that ought to run the company — both 1MDB and SRC,” Mr Shafee said.

Mr Shafee said 99.9 per cent of the money Najib spent in government was not for his own benefit, explaining lavish purchases of jewellery and other items using SRC funds as necessary reciprocity for gifts. But prosecutors had pushed a sentence “reserved for the worst case imaginable”, arguing that Mr Najib had “tarnished the country’s image” and betrayed the public’s trust.

Najib looked grim as he entered a heavily fortified Kuala Lumpur court precinct on Tuesday morning dressed in a beige suit and face mask, despite the cheers of hundreds of supporters shouting “long live Najib”.

Many saw the trial as a test of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s resolve to stamp out corruption, particularly after several high-profile 1MDB-related corruption cases were recently dropped, including charges against Najib’s stepson, Hollywood movie producer Riza Aziz.

Some analysts have predicted that any Najib conviction would inevitably be overturned on appeal, but Oh Ei Sun, a Malaysian political analyst and former Najib adviser, told The Australian it was hard to imagine an appeals court overturning Justice Nazlan’s “very thorough and professional” finding of facts in his judgment.

“If they don’t do that, I don’t see how they would overturn the conviction,” Dr Oh said.

He said while Justice Nazlan’s judgment was not binding in Najib’s other corruption cases, it was likely to be “persuasive”.

Tuesday’s verdict is expected to boost the popularity of Mr Muhyiddin whose defection with a dozen MPs from the former ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition in February caused the collapse of the reformist government and led to his swearing in as Malaysia’s eighth prime minister.

Additional reporting: Selvanaban Mariappen