The jailed former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has been sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison after being found guilty of abuse of power in the largest trial yet related to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB corruption scandal.
The new conviction substantially increases the six-year prison term he is already serving for a separate case linked to the scandal, in which billions of dollars were plundered from the now-defunct sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah convicted Najib, 72, on all four counts of abuse of power. The former prime minister also faces a verdict on 21 counts of money laundering related to the fund, which has prompted investigations in several countries.
In his verdict, the judge said that the contention by the accused that the charges were a witch-hunt and politically motivated was debunked by the cold, hard and incontrovertible evidence against him, which pointed to him having abused his powerful position in 1MDB.
Prosecutors argued that Najib abused his roles as prime minister, finance minister and 1MDB advisory board chair to move large amounts of money from the fund into his personal accounts. The defence had claimed that Najib was misled by associates and that the funds were donations, but the judge dismissed these arguments.
Najib has consistently denied wrongdoing. He has been in prison since August 2022, when Malaysia's top court upheld a corruption conviction for illegally receiving funds from a 1MDB unit. His 12-year sentence in that case was halved last year by a pardons board.
