KUALA LUMPUR — Having played golf with United States (US) presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak will now count convicted murderers and drug traffickers as neighbours.
The Federal Court ordered Najib to begin a 12-year prison sentence on Tuesday after upholding a conviction on charges related to a multi-billion dollar graft scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad .
Najib tried to leave the country soon afterwards, but he was stopped, arrested briefly and his properties raided in scenes that Malaysians did not expect to see involving the son of the nation's well-respected second prime minister, Abdul Razak Hussein. Prosecutors have said some US$4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB — co-founded by Najib as premier in 2009 — and over US$1 billion went to Najib in what the United States Department of Justice has described as its biggest kleptocracy investigation.
Najib could now apply for a review of the Federal Court decision, though such applications are rarely successful. But the disenchantment of Malaysia's ethnic minorities in a 2013 election prompted Najib to roll back his reform pledges in the face of anger over a perceived loss of long-held economic privileges by the majority ethnic Malays.
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