Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak faces 25 new charges of money laundering and abuse of power over 1MDB scandal

会员登录 - 在线投稿 - 设为首页 - 加入收藏 - 网站地图欢迎访问农村日报网！

主页政策解读农村天地德孝乡村致富达人电商/企业民生关注基层建设传媒热点 English

热门搜索：湖北鄂州湖北英山捣毁给v从恶意分公司给湖北麻城工程款山东

当前位置：主页 > English 正文

Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak faces 25 new charges of money laundering and abuse of power over 1MDB scandal

时间：2024-10-31 20:00 来源：未知作者：admin 阅读：次

In short:

Najib Razak has pleaded not guilty to 25 new charges linked to the multi-billion-dollar 1MBD scandal.

The charges were laid after a Kuala Lumpur court determined the prosecution had established a case for them.

What's next?

The imprisoned former prime minister is expected to take the stand in the trial, which is set to resume in December.

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak faces 25 new charges over the multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors had established a case for four charges of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering for allegedly receiving 2.3 billion ringgit ($797 million) from 1MDB.

He has pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and fines up to five times the amount of funds involved in the offence.

The 71-year-old was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2022 after being found guilty of graft in a separate 1MDB-linked case.

The sentence was later halved by a pardons board chaired by Malaysia's king, with Najib set to be released in August 2028.

Malaysian and US investigators say at least $US4.5 billion ($6.9b) was allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB, a state fund founded by Najib in 2009 while he was premier.

Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund is still attempting to recover the billions in funds that were allegedly misappropriated by high-ranking officials and their associates.

Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the charges filed against Najib were valid and correct in law and found all prosecution witnesses to be credible.

Prosecutors had called on 50 witnesses to give evidence, including former central bank governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, media reported.

Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who leads Najib's defence team, said the former prime minister was "extremely disappointed" by the ruling but was prepared to take the stand in his own defence.

"My client wants to be cross-examined because he has nothing to fear," Muhammad Shafee told reporters after the court ruling.

The defence plans to call on 11 witnesses, he said.

Najib, who was voted out in 2018 after nine years in power, issued a rare apology last week for his role in mishandling the 1MDB scandal.

Najib maintains he had no knowledge of any illegal transfers from the state fund, saying he was misled by others and believed that monies transferred into his personal bank accounts were political donations from the Saudi royal family.

Investigators say more than $US1 billion ($1.5b) of 1MDB funds made its way into Najib's personal accounts, in a globe-spanning scheme that former US attorney-general Jeff Sessions has described as "kleptocracy at its worst".

Najib's apology came just days after Malaysia said it would introduce a law allowing house arrest for some offences.

Najib has been pushing to serve the remainder of his jail sentence at home, and is seeking a court ruling to compel the government to confirm the existence of a royal order that he said accompanied the pardons board's decision and recommended house arrest for him.

The government later denied the proposed law was targeted towards Najib or to help other politicians accused of corruption to escape jail.

Reuters/ABC

By：ABC

(责任编辑：admin)

顶一下

(0)

踩一下

(0)

上一篇：Guided bomb kills child in Kharkiv as Russia continues border push, Ukrainian officials say
下一篇：Israel says it has launched strikes on Hezbollah weapons and command facilities in Syria