Najib Goes To Jail After Federal Court Upholds His Guilty Verdict
The decision comes after a desperate, last-ditch attempt made by Najib and his lawyers to get the Chief Justice to recuse herself from presiding over his SRC International appeal.
The Federal Court today, 23 August, dismissed convicted former premier Najib Razak's final appeal to overturn his corruption conviction and 12-year jail sentence linked to a former subsidiary of 1MDB
Najib Razak with his daughter and others seen outside the Federal Court in Putrajaya today, 23 August.
Image via Lai Seng Sin/Reuters
The Federal Court ruled that it is satisfied with the prime facie case found by the SRC trial judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali
"In our judgement, there is no error in the findings of the High Court judge. We find the appellant's (Najib) appeal is devoid of merits and the committal remains safe," the Federal Court ruled.
The decision means Najib is set to begin serving his 12-year jail term immediately.
The former prime minister also needs to pay his RM210 million fine.
The decision was delivered by a five-member panel, which was presided over by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat
Najib and his lawyers had earlier today tried to get the Chief Justice to recuse herself from the appeal.
In his affidavit of support, Najib claimed that Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun's thinking may have been "unconsciously influenced" by her husband's negative sentiments towards him and his leadership.
However, their bid was denied.
The Chief Justice said that the SRC case was a straightforward one involving abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering
She added that the findings of the High Court judge are sound, while the Court of Appeal's decision to uphold the lower court's guilty verdict was also correct, reported The Edge.
"In appeals, the appellate court should be slow to interfere in judgements made by the lower court. We (the bench) found that the appellant's appeal with regard to the 94 grounds tendered is devoid of merits," she said.
On 28 July 2020, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and fined him RM210 million for his corruption:
On 8 December 2021, the Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the Kuala Lumpur High Court's guilty verdict against Najib:
Following which, he managed to get successive stays:
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