PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA, Aug 23(ABC): Malaysia’s highest court Tuesday upheld former prime minister Najib Razak’s 12-year jail sentence for corruption in the 1MDB financial scandal, a decision analysts said could slam the door to a political comeback.
Chief Justice Maimun Tuan Mat also issued a warrant of committal, which a lawyer said means Najib is going immediately to jail.
The 69-year-old former prime minister looked somber and dejected, surrounded by his wife Rosmah and two children as the verdict was read.
“We find the appeal devoid of any merits. We find the conviction and sentence to be safe,” Maimun said on behalf of a five-judge panel of the Federal Court.
“It is our unanimous view that the evidence led during the trial points overwhelmingly to guilt on all seven charges.”
Maimun said “it would have been a travesty of justice of the highest order if any reasonable tribunal, faced with such evidence staring it in the face, were to find that the appellant is not guilty of the seven charges preferred against him”.
Sankara Nair, a lawyer who is not involved in the case, told that “with the court issuing a warrant of committal, Najib will be sent to prison immediately”.
The Federal Court decision was handed down after the tribunal threw out a last-minute move by Najib’s lawyers to recuse the chief justice from hearing the case, alleging bias on her part.
