Malaysia halves jail term of former Prime Minister Razak in 1MDB scandal

Malaysia has halved the sentence of disgraced former Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Najib, who is currently in jail for corruption in the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, has had his 12-year sentence halved to six years, the country's pardon's board said on Friday.

Najib's fines were reduced from 210 million ringgit ($44.5 million) to 50 million ($10.6 million), the pardons board said. He is now set to be freed on August 23, 2028.

However, if he fails to pay the fine, an additional year will be imposed on his jail term, the board added.

In the meantime, he remains on trial in multiple cases related to 1MDB.

Najib, who has not shown any signs of remorse, is the country's first prime minister to be jailed.

He blames Jho Low, the fugitive financier behind the scheme, for the $4.5 billion that was stolen from the fund.

Investigators say the money in the fund meant for the economic development of the country was plundered by the former prime minister and his lackeys to buy cars, boats, high-end property, and lots of other expensive commoties, in addition to financing the production of The Wolf of Wall Street film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

The British-educated son of Malay nobility, Najib was prime minister from 2009 until 2018 when public fury over the scandal led to his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party losing power for the first time since Malaysia secured its independence in 1957.

On July 28, 2020, Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali found Najib guilty of all seven counts of misappropriation of state funds and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Malaysian ex-PM Najib goes to jail for multi-billion dollar graft scandal

Malaysia

In August 2022, shortly after his conviction and his sentence was upheld by Malaysia’s highest court, Najib applied for a royal pardon.

Najib's application was among five other pardon bids reviewed on Monday by the board, chaired by King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah. The king plays a largely ceremonial role but can pardon convicted people among discretionary powers granted by the federal constitution.

King Abdullah, who is from Pahang, the same central state as Najib, ended his five-year reign on January 30 under the country’s rotating system of monarchy. He was succeeded by Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar from the southern state of Johor.

Malaysia's pardon's board did not give a reason for reducing Najib’s sentence, but its decision is likely to renew concerns about the way in which politics might be playing into Malaysia’s fight against corruption.

Meanwhile, the reduction in Najib’s sentence comes amid accusations that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's administration is backsliding on anticorruption reforms after a string of corruption cases linked to Najib and the corruption-tainted UMNO leaders were dropped last year.

Ibrahim formed a coalition government with UMNO in November 2022, after an election that ended in a hung parliament.

Observers believe that being seen as going easy on Najib would be food for Malaysia’s image and likely to put further pressure on the ringgit, the region’s worst-performing currency in 2023.

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