A Malaysian court on Friday sentenced former premier Najib Razak to serve 15 years in prison after convicting him on multiple counts of abuse of power and money laundering over his role in the multibillion-dollar fraud scandal at state fund 1MDB.
The judge sentenced Najib to 15 years in jail on each of the four counts of abuse of power and five years in prison for each of the 21 charges of money laundering, all of which would be served concurrently. Najib, 72, has been in prison since August 2022 after a conviction in an earlier case involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad, which he co-founded in 2009 while premier. He has denied wrongdoing.
Razak on Friday urged Malaysians to be calm after he was sentenced to 15 more years in jail, and said he would continue his "struggle" and demand his rights through legitimate channels.
"I call upon all Malaysians to assess this matter calmly and rationally, not merely from the perspective of my fate as an individual, but for the sake of the future of the nation's institutions and the principles that we uphold together," he said in a statement read out by his lawyer, who said Najib would appeal the ruling on Monday.
