The former prime minister Najib Razak was found guilty of wrongdoing in the 1MDB financial scandal and was given a 12-year prison sentence, which was affirmed by Malaysia's highest court.
The 1MDB state fund, which was co-founded in 2009 when Najib was the prime minister, allegedly had almost $4.5 billion taken from it, according to prosecutors.
"We determine that the appeal has no merit. On behalf of a five-judge panel, Chief Justice Maimun Tuan Mat stated on Tuesday, "We find the conviction and punishment to be safe.
Based on the aforementioned, we all agree that the evidence presented during the trial strongly suggests guilt on each of the seven allegations.
According to Florence Looi of Al Jazeera, who is reporting from Kuala Lumpur, the verdict means that the defendant's sentence of 12 years in prison and a fine of about $45 million will stand.
She predicted that he would enter prison today and make history by being the first former prime leader to do so.In anticipation of the appeal, the former prime minister has been out on bail since 2018.
The United Malays National Organization (UMNO), to which Najib belongs, was feared to meddle in the legal system. The judgment allayes those suspicions.
In July 2020, a lower court ruled Najib responsible for the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($10.1 million) from SRC International, a former division of 1MDB, to his personal bank account, guilty of abuse of power, money laundering, and criminal breach of trust.
After having his appeal rejected by an appellate court in December, he turned to the Federal Court as his last resort.The chief judge stated that it would have been "a farce of justice of the highest order" for any rational tribunal to find the appellant innocent of the seven accusations brought against him in light of the evidence in question.The Federal Court ruling was made after a panel rejected Najib's lawyers' last-minute request to have the chief judge recuse herself from hearing the case due to perceived bias on her behalf.
"We heard Najib speak while he was in the dock and he tried to paint himself as a victim of justice. According to Al Jazeera's Looi, "He attempted to portray the high court judge who heard the initial case as prejudiced."In the end, the five-member panel rejected their contentions."
Najib has allegedly long sought to portray himself as a victim of political persecution, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent. After the ruling that his party is in power, the argument will no longer be valid.
Najib, a son of one of Malaysia's founding fathers who attended school in the UK, was raised with the intention of becoming prime minister.
The decision to condemn him to prison also comes four years after his long-ruling party suffered a shocking election loss in 2018, when suspicions that he and his friends had embezzled billions of dollars from the state fund 1MDB were hot topics in the campaign.
"This [verdict] is significant because, as you may be aware, he is still facing charges in several other 1MDB-related cases. This particular case, which concerns a former 1MDB company, has long been viewed as the simpler one in the entire corruption affair, according to Al Jazeera's Looi.
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