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KUALA LUMPUR • The trial involving former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been regarded as “the worst kind” of abuse of office, breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering by the High Court judge who convicted him.
Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali commented that Najib also did not express any remorse after he was convicted on July 28 of seven counts of corruption in the case involving RM42 million (S $ 13.8 million) that was deposited into his bank accounts. personal.
The funds belonged to SRC International, a former unit of the state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
The judge made his comments in an 801-page judgment, with the report dated August 21.
The sentence, seen by The Star, was part of the appeal file sent to the Court of Appeal.
Judge Nazlan said that based on how the crimes were committed, the huge sum involved, and its public impact, he would not hesitate to characterize the case as “the worst kind” of position abuse, CBT and money laundering.
“And perhaps most importantly, it involved the person who at the material time held the highest authority in government,” he wrote.
The judge sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and a fine of 210 million ringgit, failing five years in prison on the single charge of abuse of power.
Najib was sentenced to 10 years in jail each for the three CBT counts and three counts of money laundering. All jail time was ordered to be executed at the same time.
Najib, in his mitigation speech in which he addressed the judge directly, described his accomplishments during his nine years as prime minister and recited the Muslim oath to deny any knowledge of where the money came from.
Judge Nazlan said that it cannot be denied that Najib did indeed make contributions to the welfare and betterment of the nation during his tenure as prime minister.
“Political history will continue to debate whether, in general, it has done more good than bad. But this very process could be contrary to the ideals of a clean administration that does not tolerate corruption and abuse of power,” he said.
Judge Nazlan 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 of the country, enjoys a cloak of invincibility from the force of law,” he wrote, quoted by the Free Malaysia Today news site.
The court also found it useless to find out the reasoning behind Najib’s crimes.
“There is little merit in this court to pontificate and lament over why the defendant did what he did, despite (or because of) his undisputed position at the cusp of vast wealth of power and incomparable authority.
“The accused, I repeat, is a person with a keen intellect and surely must have a strong sense of right and wrong,” added Judge Nazlan.
Najib filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence on July 30.
Case management on appeal has been corrected for October 15.
THE STAR / ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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