Malaysian Court Rejects Ex-PM Najib Bid to Review Corruption Case

By Staff, Agencies

Malaysia’s top court has dismissed a bid by jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak to review his corruption conviction over the multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB, ending Najib’s judicial efforts to challenge the guilty verdict.

Najib was jailed last year after Malaysia’s Federal Court upheld a guilty verdict and 12-year prison sentence handed down to him by a lower court.

Najib, 69, claimed he had not received a fair hearing, alleging one judge had a conflict of interest and that his new legal team was not allowed enough time to study the case documents.

But the Federal Court on Friday dismissed the challenge.

“There has been no prejudice and no failure of justice,” Judge Vernon Ong said.

The former prime minister can no longer challenge the conviction in court but he has applied for a royal pardon which, if successful, could see him released without serving the full 12-year term.

Ong said that a five-member panel voted 4-1 to dismiss Najib’s application to review the conviction.

There was no miscarriage of justice in the top court’s decision last year, he said, adding that a review was granted only in “very limited and exceptional circumstances”.

“In the final analysis, and having regard to all circumstances, we are constrained to say that the applicant [Najib] was the author of his own misfortunes,” Ong said.

Investigators have said some $4.5bn was stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad [1MDB] – co-founded by Najib during his first year as prime minister in 2009 – and that more than $1bn went to accounts linked to Najib.