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KUALA LUMPUR: Najib Razak did not express any remorse after he was convicted of seven counts of corruption in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International.
Trial judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said the former prime minister even upheld his defense of not having knowledge of the RM42 million in his mitigation.
On July 28, Nazlan allowed Najib to personally address the court after his defense attorney, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, had also conducted an extensive exercise.
Najib, who ended his mitigation by taking the “Islamic oath,” said he had never
he demanded the RM42 million, he never planned it and it wasn’t offered to him either.
“Furthermore, he claimed that he was unaware of the 42 million ringgit,” Nazlan said in his written judgment published yesterday.
Nazlan said that he could not deny that Najib had made contributions to the well-being and betterment of the nation’s people, probably in many different ways, since he was prime minister for nine years after all.
“Political history will continue to debate whether, in general, it has done more good than bad. But this same process could be said to be contrary to the ideals of a clean administration that does not tolerate corruption and abuse of power, ”he said.
He said that if the nation’s moral compass required any recalibration it deserved a separate speech.
“What this court seeks to affirm is the sanctity of the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution.
“No one, not even one who was the most powerful political figure and leader in the country, enjoys a cloak of invincibility from the force of law,” he said.
Nazlan said Najib’s conviction on the seven counts of abuse of position, criminal breach of trust and money laundering constituted nothing less than an outright betrayal of trust.
For this reason, he said that he regarded the abuse of office conviction under section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act as the most serious offense among the three, given his position of trust as prime minister and finance minister when he they committed the crimes. .
He said that all the crimes for which the defendant was convicted manifestly involved deliberate planning and premeditation over a period of time.
Najib was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined 210 million RM for abuse of power and 10 years for each of the three counts of criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
However, the judge ordered that the jail terms be applied at the same time, which means that Najib will serve 12 years in jail.
Nazlan allowed the defense request to suspend the jail sentence in view of the heavy fine imposed.
Najib has filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal, while the prosecution has filed an appeal for lack of adequacy of the sentence.
