Court finds Malaysia’s former PM Najib Razak guilty of abuse of power 

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been found guilty in his second major trial involving the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal.

The ruling was handed down by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Friday, where Najib, 72, was found guilty on four counts of abuse of power regarding the illegal transfer of about 2.2 billion Malaysian ringgit ($539m) from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.

“The prosecution, I find, has thus proven its case against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt in respect of the first charge,” Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said.

“I therefore convict the accused of the first charge,” the judge said.

Najib faces 21 additional counts of money laundering and the ruling was still under way at the court on Friday. Each charge carries between 15 and 20 years imprisonment.

Prosecutors accused Najib of abusing his position as prime minister, finance minister and 1MDB advisory board chairman by moving large amounts of money from the sovereign wealth fund to his personal accounts more than a decade ago.

The scandal first exploded in Malaysia in 2015 and Najib was later found guilty and sentenced in 2020 to 12 years in prison for misappropriating about $9.9m in 1MDB funds. His sentence was later commuted to six years.

This latest trial, Najib’s second, was widely considered the most significant to date because it directly involved 1MDB entities and much larger sums of money.

The marathon legal proceedings have spanned seven years and saw lawyers call 76 witnesses to the stand, including Najib himself.

“The trial has had a lot of delays, and it’s a very complicated thing to understand,” said Bridget Welsh, an honorary research associate with the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute Malaysia.

“These financial crimes are multi-layered, and it’s been a long, extensive process,” Welsh told Al Jazeera.

Najib apologised last year for mishandling the 1MDB scandal, but during his recent trial maintained that he had been led astray by the fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low, who has been wanted by Interpol since 2016.

Judge Sequerah said on Friday that evidence indicated Najib had an “unmistakable bond and connection” with Low, who served as the prime minister’s “proxy and intermediary”, Reuters reported.

The judge also challenged Najib’s defence that he mistakenly believed some of his ill-gotten funds were “donations” from the Saudi royal family, Reuters said.

Despite the scope of the charges against him, Najib is still popular among some supporters of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

The UMNO headed Malaysia for six decades from 1957 until 2018, when the party finally lost power following the 1MDB scandal.

The Asia Research Institute’s Welsh told Al Jazeera that the outcome of Najib’s trial will demonstrate the strength of political accountability in Malaysia, particularly for its senior leaders.

“This is a test of Malaysia’s judiciary, and it’s a test of political will to allow this to continue, especially given that the party involved is also part of the government,” she said.