Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak jailed for 15 years in country's biggest corruption case

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after the Kuala Lumpur High Court found him guilty in one of the most significant corruption cases in Malaysia’s history, linked to the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal.

The verdict was delivered on Friday, with the court holding Najib guilty of illegally diverting vast sums of public money from the state investment fund into his personal bank accounts. Prosecutors told the court that approximately 2.2 billion Malaysian ringgit—around USD 543 million—was misappropriated during his tenure.

Najib was convicted on multiple charges, including abuse of power and money laundering. While delivering the sentence, High Court Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah rejected Najib’s defence that the prosecution was politically motivated, stating that the evidence clearly demonstrated the former prime minister had exploited his position for personal gain.

According to the prosecution, Najib abused his authority as prime minister, finance minister, and chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board to exercise control over the fund and siphon off public money more than a decade ago. The court imposed a 15-year prison term for abuse of power, while the money laundering convictions attracted additional sentences. All jail terms will run concurrently.

This marks Najib’s second major conviction related to the 1MDB scandal. In an earlier case in 2020, he was found guilty of misappropriating nearly USD 10 million from the same fund and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, a term that was later reduced.

Although Najib issued a public apology to Malaysians last year over the 1MDB controversy, he maintained throughout the trial that he had been misled by fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, widely known as Jho Low, who has been on Interpol’s wanted list for several years.

The 1MDB scandal is widely regarded as one of the largest financial fraud cases in the world and has triggered sweeping political, legal, and institutional repercussions in Malaysia, while also drawing international scrutiny and investigations across multiple countries.