Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - On Tuesday, Malaysia's highest court turned down a request from former Prime Minister Najib Razak t...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - On Tuesday, Malaysia's highest court turned down a request from former Prime Minister Najib Razak to add new evidence to his final appeal against a 12-year prison sentence for a case related to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB financial scandal.
Najib, who is 69 years old, is accused of stealing $4.5 billion from 1MDB, a state fund he helped start as premier in 2009. This is part of a wide-ranging scandal that involves high-ranking officials and financial institutions from Hollywood to the Middle East.
In the first of several trials, he was found guilty in July 2020 of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering for illegally getting about $10 million from SRC international, a former unit of state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Last year, an appeals court did not change the decision.
Najib has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him. He changed his lawyers just three weeks before his last appeal at the Federal Court started on Monday. He is out on bail until the hearings, but if the appeal fails, he could become the first prime minister, former or current, to go to jail in the country.
Lawyers for Najib had asked the court to let them bring in new evidence that would show that the trial judge who found Najib guilty had a conflict of interest because he used to work at a bank that did business with 1MDB.
Tuesday, the five-person court ruled unanimously against the motion, saying that the evidence asked for was either already public or could have been found with reasonable effort during the trial.
Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said, "All of the extra evidence that is being asked to be brought in is irrelevant to the charges against the applicant and does not show any conflict of interest."
The court also turned down Najib's newly hired lawyers' request for a three- to four-month delay so they could fully prepare their arguments because the case was so complicated.
After the hearing, Najib told reporters that he was "shocked and disappointed" by the judges' decision, but he was still hopeful that he would be cleared in the end.
Documents sent before the appeal showed that the ex-prime minister had given 94 reasons why he should be freed, including the fact that some of the decisions made by lower courts were wrong.
Thursday is the next day of the hearing.
