Najib has been charged with four counts of corruption and 21 counts of money laundering
News Desk
KUALA LUMPUR: Jailed former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was found guilty of abuse of power on Friday in the biggest trial yet in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, a ruling that could have significant political repercussions.
The judge had yet to deliver the full verdict and sentencing.
Malaysia and US investigators say at least $4.5 billion was stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state fund Najib co-founded in 2009 while in office. More than $1 billion allegedly made its way into accounts linked to Najib, who has consistently denied wrongdoing.
Najib has been charged with four counts of corruption and 21 counts of money laundering for receiving illegal transfers of more than 2.3 billion ringgit ($569.45 million) from 1MDB. He had consistently denied wrongdoing.
“The contention by the accused that the charges against him were a witch hunt and politically motivated was debunked by the cold, hard and incontrovertible evidence against him that pointed towards the accused having abused his own powerful position in 1MDB, coupled with the extensive powers conferred upon him,” Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said in an ongoing reading of the verdict.
Supporters of former Malaysian PM Najib Razak hold banners featuring his portrait outside the Palace of Justice, in Putrajaya, Malaysia on December 26, 2025. — Reuters
Supporters of former Malaysian PM Najib Razak hold banners featuring his portrait outside the Palace of Justice, in Putrajaya, Malaysia on December 26, 2025. — Reuters
Najib could face maximum jail terms of between 15 and 20 years on each charge, as well as a fine of up to five times the value of the alleged misappropriations.
Najib, 72, has been in prison since August 2022, when Malaysia’s top court upheld a verdict convicting him of corruption for illegally receiving funds from a 1MDB unit. His 12-year jail sentence in that case was halved last year by a pardons board.
Link with fugitive financier
Najib last year apologised for mishandling the scandal while in office but had consistently denied wrongdoing, saying repeatedly that he was misled by 1MDB officials and the fugitive financier, Jho Low, about the source of the funds.
Judge Sequerah, in reading the verdict, had earlier said evidence had revealed Najib had an “unmistakable bond and connection” with Low, who acted as the then prime minister’s “proxy and intermediary” in 1MDB affairs.
Low, who has been charged in the United States for his central role in the case, denies all wrongdoing, and his whereabouts are unknown.
Najib has maintained he was misled by Low and other 1MDB officials into believing that funds deposited into his account were donations from the Saudi royal family.
