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The Kuala Lumpur High Court will deliver its verdict in two major cases in which former Prime Minister Najib Razak has been jailed. This decision may test the anti-corruption campaign of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Razak faces corruption charges in the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scam and the verdict on Monday will determine whether he can serve the remainder of his sentence in his home country.
Najib, who is jailed until 2022, had his 12-year sentence halved last year by the clemency committee chaired by the former king, according to Reuters. However, they say the Emperor also issued an “additional order” under which his remaining sentence was commuted to house arrest, and they are pressuring the government to acknowledge the existence of this document and enforce its terms.
Although government officials declined to confirm the existence of any such decree, the former king’s office and federal prosecutors have now confirmed that the royal document was issued.
The High Court will deliver its verdict today, four days before it is due to deliver its verdict in the biggest case against Najib over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scam, Reuters reports. 1Malaysia Development Berhad is a sovereign fund co-founded by Najib in 2009.
On December 26, the court will also rule on whether Najib will be found guilty of four other corruption charges and 21 counts of money laundering related to the illegal transfer of about 2.2 billion ringgit ($538.69 million) from 1MDB. If found guilty, each offense is punishable with imprisonment of up to 20 years and a fine of up to five times the amount allegedly embezzled.
Any decision in Najib’s favor could spark public anger, especially among supporters of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who took office in 2022 with tough anti-corruption promises. Although Anwar has said that he does not interfere in judicial proceedings, questions have been raised for a long time regarding the independence of this post regarding the appointment of the Attorney General by the Prime Minister.
Authorities in Malaysia and the United States have alleged that at least $4.5 billion was embezzled from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014, with more than $1 billion reportedly deposited into accounts linked to Najib. In 2022, he became the first former Malaysian prime minister to be jailed, after exhausting all legal avenues of appeal.
Following his party’s defeat in the 2018 election, Najib last year apologized for failures in his handling of the 1MDB case during his tenure. However, he has repeatedly denied any criminal wrongdoing and has insisted that fugitive financier Joe Low and other senior figures linked to 1MDB had misled him about the source of the funds.