Jailed former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was convicted by the Kuala Lumpur High Court today on the charges of abuse of power and money laundering in the multibillion-dollar 1 Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. The judge is yet to announce sentencing of Najib over his role in massive embezzlement from 1 Malaysia Development Berhad while he was the Prime Minister. 

According to investigators, at least 4.5 billion dollars were stolen from 1MDB, a state fund Najib co-founded in 2009 while in office. Najib has denied any wrongdoing. in his verdict, Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said, the contention by the accused that the charges against him were a witch hunt and politically motivated were debunked by the cold, hard and incontrovertible evidence against him. 72 year old Najib 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.