The retrial of the Supreme Court of Malaysia Najib Razak

On Thursday the Supreme Court of Malaysia began hearing the appeal of former Prime Minister Najib Razak to revoke his prison sentence on bribery charges.

The hearings initiated by the Court of Cassation in this case should continue until August 26th.

But at the start of the hearing, defense attorney Husam Teh-Poh-Tek surprised the five judges of the court by saying he was asking to be exonerated from the case.

The chief judge of the court, Tengko Mimun-Tuan-Mat, the lawyer, replied that he could not simply resign and ordered the hearing adjourned.

On Tuesday, the Federal Court dismissed a petition filed by Razak for a retrial, thus paving the way for the Supreme Court to begin considering the appeal against the conviction.

Razak, 69, and his ruling party were defeated in the 2018 election, amid allegations of their involvement in the 1MDB scandal.

Former Prime Minister Najib Razak is accused, along with those close to him, of stealing billions of dollars from the fund and spending it on the purchase of luxury properties in valuable works of art.

After a lengthy trial, Razak was found guilty of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust by transferring 42 million ringgit ($ 10.1 million) from a unit of 1 MDB to his bank account.

He was sentenced in July 2020 to 12 years in prison.

If the sentence is upheld, Razak will be immediately jailed to begin the execution of the sentence, according to his lawyer.

Despite the belief, Razak still enjoys wide influence and is popular in a segment of the electorate

Follow AsumeTech on

More From Category

More Stories Today

Leave a Reply