A Kuala Lumpur court on Tuesday found ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak guilty of all seven charges in the first of his corruption trials tied to the looting of billions of dollars from state fund 1MDB – an unprecedented conviction handed to a former head of government in Malaysia.


Najib was convicted on one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust, and three counts of money-laundering over allegations that he illegally received 42 million ringgit (U.S. $9.67 million) from SRC International, a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Najib had established 1MDB in 2009 to benefit the Malaysian people, when he served both as prime minister and finance minister.


“After considering all [the] evidence in this trial, I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt … I therefore find the accused guilty and convict the accused on all seven charges,” Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Nazlan Ghazali said at the end of the verdict, which took him about 90 minutes to read out.


On a monitor in another room at the courthouse, journalists were watching the proceedings. Najib, could be seen leaning back in his chair with a resigned look on his face as the judge finished handing down the verdict.


Afterwards a crowd of supporters of Najib and his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party gathered outside the courthouse to voice their anger over the ruling.


“Dissolve the parliament! Long live my boss! God is great!” they chanted in protest.


Late in the afternoon, hours after the verdict came down, the 67-year-old former leader made a brief statement before the judge, after Najib’s defense team had pleaded for the sentencing phase to be postponed till another day.


“I … ensured a fairer and more gentle society. I abolished the ISA [Internal Security Act], something I wasn’t given much credit for. I ensured that the country did not undergo periods of abuse of power,” Najib told the court, while also highlighting nearly a decade of robust economic growth that his government had brought to Malaysia during his nine years in power.


He said he had also tried to implement a more transparent system of political donations, but such legislation needed bipartisan backing and his proposal died because the opposition did not agree to it.


He added: “[L]et me say it again … I did not demand for the 42 million [ringgit], I did not plan for the 42 million, nor was the 42 million offered to me, and there has been no evidence to say so.”


When Najib arrived at the courthouse for the verdict scheduled for 10 a.m. (local time), hundreds of his supporters clad in partisan red or blue shirts were waiting for him in the nearby streets.


A crowd of Najib’s supporters and journalists mobbed the ex-PM as he emerged from his car and walked with senior UMNO party leaders to the courthouse gate, a distance of about 100 meters (328 feet).


Some of his supporters prayed for Najib as he entered the building. He wore a face mask to guard against the coronavirus. He was dressed in a tan suit, white shirt and orange-and-blue tie.


“We did not expect him to lose the case,” said Rosni Sohar, the secretary of Wanita UMNO Malaysia, UMNO’s women’s wing.


“We accept the court decision with a heavy heart. This is not the end,” she told BenarNews outside the courthouse. “We also hope that his lawyers will find the facts and evidence to free him.”


On the eve of the verdict, Najib posted a message on his Facebook page in which he said that he expected the SRC trial to continue at the appeals’ court level no matter how the trial judge ruled on Tuesday.


“Whatever the verdict tomorrow is at the high court, this is not the end,” Najib said on Monday, as he thanked his supporters, who refer to him as “bossku,” Malay for “my boss.”


“I have not given up. Yes, we shall go to the Court of Appeal next. I am ready.”


It was not immediately clear whether the trial's sentencing phase would take place later on Tuesday, with Najib facing the prospect of spending decades in prison based on the conviction.


Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, an MP and chief organizing secretary for the opposition People’s Justice Party, said justice had been done through Tuesday’s conviction of Najib.


“This proves that the years-long struggle to expose and bring to justice the abuses of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal by so many patriotic Malaysians has finally been vindicated,” the lawmaker said in a statement. “Every cent that was stolen must be returned and all guilty parties brought to justice.”


According to an expert in Malaysian politics, Tuesday’s verdict has both good and bad implications for the government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.


Muhyiddin’s “position as the prime Minister will be strengthened because of his image of wanting to create a high-integrity government,” Mazlan Ali, a senior lecturer at Universiti Tecknologi Malaysia, told BenarNews.


“Even though the [court’s] decision has nothing to do with the prime minister, in general the perception is that Muhyiddin did not interfere in the court process,” he said.


The ruling Perikatan Nasional coalition, at the same time, had suffered a blow with the verdict against Najib because the former prime minister was now about to lose his parliamentary seat, weakening the bloc’s already slender majority, Mazlan added.


A scandal with global reach


Najib is still standing trial in another court on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering connected with 2.3 billion ringgit ($551 million) that went missing from 1MDB. He could also face additional trials on 10 other corruption-related charges tied to the state investment fund.


Malaysian and U.S. prosecutors had alleged that $4.5 billion (18.3 billion ringgit) was diverted from 1MDB and SRC to bank accounts held by Najib and others.


The allegations of massive corruption connected to 1MDB led to Najib’s downfall as prime minister when his UMNO party, which had dominated Malaysian politics for 61 years, was swept out of office in the May 2018 general election.


The Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) government, which came to power then, moved quickly to charge Najib and others within his inner circle as part of criminal investigations into the 1MDB scandal.


But the Pakatan government, which was elected on a campaign pledge to rid government of corruption, collapsed at the end of February 2020. A new unelected government anchored by UMNO has since taken over and is led by Muhyiddin, who quit that party after being sacked as Najib’s deputy prime minister in 2015, when Muhyiddin publically raised concerns about the 1MDB affair.


Muhyiddin replaced Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister in early March after forming a new coalition and convincing the king that he had the support of a majority of MPs.


1MDB was the target of money-laundering investigations in at least a half-dozen countries outside Malaysia, including the United States, Singapore and Switzerland.


In December 2017, then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions described the plundering of massive amounts of cash from Malaysia’s 1MDB fund as “kleptocracy at its worst,” when he revealed that the United States had seized or restrained $3.5 billion as part of a corruption probe.


“Allegedly corrupt officials and their associates reportedly used the funds for a lavish spending spree,” Sessions said in a speech at the time, prompting officials in Najib’s government to deny that the prime minister, who was referred to repeatedly in U.S. federal court documents as “Malaysian Official 1,” had a role in the looting of 1MDB money.


Cash from the state investment fund was spent on high-end real estate in New York and California as well as the purchase of a superyacht, U.S. Department of Justice officials alleged in court papers.


A central figure in the scandal was Jho Low – a Malaysian financier and fugitive from justice whose real name is Low Taek Jho.


During the SRC trial, the defense team hammered the point that Najib was a victim of manipulation by Jho Low as well as SRC International’s former managing director, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.


The trial was held over 94 days with 57 witnesses called for the prosecution and 19 taking the stand for the defense.


In their closing argument, prosecutors blamed Najib, in his parallel role as finance minister, of orchestrating the crime, adding that Jho Low had acted on his orders.


Jho Low, who faces his own criminal charges in Malaysia related to 1MDB, reached a deal in the U.S. to turn over assets valued at $700 million (2.925 billion ringgit) purchased with 1MDB funds.


In mid-May, Malaysian prosecutors dropped money-laundering charges against Riza Aziz, a Hollywood film producer who is Najib’s stepson, after anti-graft authorities said they had reached a deal to recover more than $100 million (425.8 million ringgit) that was missing from 1MDB. Aziz’s deal is an order of discharge not amounting to an acquittal.


In addition to the former prime minister, Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi – who served as deputy prime minister under Najib after Muhyiddin’s sacking and is now the president of UMNO – have also been charged separately in connection with the 1MDB scandal.


During Tuesday’s court session, Zahid sat next to Najib as the judge delivered his verdict.


“Najib’s conviction on the seven charges reinforces the belief of many Malaysians that there was abuse of power and corruption at the highest echelons of power,” Lim Wei Jiet, a legal expert and secretary general of the National Human Rights Society (HAKAM), told BenarNews.


“It is also a historic day for Malaysia whereby a former Prime Minister was convicted for the first time in our history,” he said.

Ex-Malaysian PM Najib Convicted on All Charges in First 1MDB Corruption Case