KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian court ruled on Wednesday that jailed former prime minister Najib Razak will have to defend himself against charges of abuse of power and money laundering linked to the scandal-wracked 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
Presiding judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the prosecution had successfully established that Najib had a case to answer for on four counts of abuse of power linked to alleged bribes worth 2.27 billion ringgit ($517 million), as well as on 21 counts of money laundering.
“After a maximum evaluation of the evidence, I find that the prosecution has proven the ingredients of the charges,” Sequerah told the court.
Six years after first being charged, Najib was in court decked out in a navy blue suit on Wednesday, and appeared calm after hearing the decision.
The 71-year-old told the court he would take the stand in his defense at the trial, which is slated to get under way on December 2.
Each count of abuse of power is punishable by up to 20 years in jail and a fine up to five times the amount of the bribe.
Each money laundering count can incur a maximum fine of 5 million ringgit and imprisonment of up to five years, or both.
The hearing came just days after Najib issued an apology that the 1MDB scandal happened during his tenure, but maintained he had no knowledge of illegal transfers from the now-defunct state fund.
“It pains me every day to know that the 1MDB debacle happened under my watch as minister of finance and prime minister,” Najib wrote in a statement read by his son Mohamad Nizar last Thursday.
“For that, I would like to apologize unreservedly to the Malaysian people.”
Allegations that billions of dollars were pilfered from investment vehicle 1MDB and used to buy everything from a super-yacht to artworks played a major role in prompting voters to oust Najib and the long-ruling United Malays National Organization party in 2018 elections.
The 1MDB scandal sparked investigations in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, whose financial systems were believed to have been used to launder the money.
The current case is one of five brought against Najib in 2018, and involves Tanore Finance Corp, which US authorities have said was used to syphon money from 1MDB.
Najib began serving a 12-year jail term in August 2022 for offenses linked to the misuse of public money from former 1MDB unit SRC International. The sentence was later halved by Malaysia’s pardons board.
His 1MDB audit tampering trial ended with an acquittal at the High Court in 2023.
Najib, the UK-educated son of one of Malaysia’s founding fathers, still has a pending case of criminal breach of trust involving 6.6 billion ringgit, as well as a money laundering trial involving 27 million ringgit.
The US Justice Department has said more than $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB between 2009 and 2015 by high-level officials at the fund and their associates.
Malaysian ex-PM Najib Razak ordered to enter defense in latest 1MDB trial
https://arab.news/jfp59
Malaysian ex-PM Najib Razak ordered to enter defense in latest 1MDB trial
- The 1MDB scandal sparked investigations in the US, Switzerland and Singapore, whose financial systems were believed to have been used to launder the money
- Former prime minister began serving a 12-year jail term in August 2022 for offenses linked to the misuse of public money from former 1MDB unit SRC International
UK pays Guantanamo detainee ‘substantial’ compensation over US torture questions
- Abu Zubaydah has been held at Guantanamo Bay without charge for 20 years
- British security services knew he was subjected to ‘enhanced interrogation’ but failed to raise concerns for 4 years
LONDON: A Saudi-born Palestinian being held without trial by the US has received a “substantial” compensation payment from the UK government, the BBC reported.
Abu Zubaydah has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for almost 20 years following his capture in Pakistan in 2002, and was subjected to “enhanced interrogation” techniques by the CIA.
He was accused of being a senior member of Al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the US. The allegations were later dropped but he remains in detention.
The compensation follows revelations that UK security services submitted questions to the US to be put to Abu Zubaydah by their US counterparts despite knowledge of his mistreatment.
He alleged that MI5 and MI6 had been “complicit” in torture, leading to a legal case and the subsequent compensation.
Dominic Grieve, the UK’s former attorney general, chaired a panel reviewing Abu Zubaydah’s case.
He described the compensation as “very unusual” but said the treatment of Abu Zubaydah had been “plainly” wrong, the BBC reported.
Grieve added that the security services had evidence that the “Americans were behaving in a way that should have given us cause for real concern,” and that “we (UK authorities) should have raised it with the US and, if necessary, closed down co-operation, but we failed to do that for a considerable period of time.”
Abu Zubaydah’s international legal counsel, Prof. Helen Duffy, said: “The compensation is important, it’s significant, but it’s insufficient.”
She added that more needs to be done to secure his release, stating: “These violations of his rights are not historic, they are ongoing.”
Duffy said Abu Zubaydah would continue to fight for his freedom, adding: “I am hopeful that the payment of the substantial sums will enable him to do that and to support himself when he’s in the outside world.”
He is one of 15 people still being held at Guantanamo, many without charge. Following his initial detention, he arrived at the prison camp having been the first person to be taken to a so-called CIA “black site.”
He spent time at six such locations, including in Lithuania and Poland, outside of US legal jurisdiction.
Internal MI6 messages revealed that the “enhanced interrogation” techniques he was subjected to would have “broken” the resolve of an estimated 98 percent of US special forces members had they been subjected to them.
CIA officers later decided he would be permanently cut off from the outside world, with then-President George W. Bush publicly saying Abu Zubaydah had been “plotting and planning murder.”
However, the US has since withdrawn the allegations and no longer says he was a member of Al-Qaeda.
A report by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded at least 83 times, was locked in a coffin-like box for extended periods, and had been regularly assaulted. Much of his treatment would be considered torture under UK law.
Despite knowledge of his treatment, it was four years before British security services raised concerns with their American counterparts, and their submission of questions within that period had “created a market” for the torture of detainees, Duffy said.
A 2018 report by the UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee was deeply critical of the behavior of MI5 and MI6 in relation to Abu Zubaydah.
It also criticized conduct relating to Guantanamo detainee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, widely regarded as a key architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, warning that the precedent set by Abu Zubaydah’s legal action could be used by Mohammed to bring a separate case against the UK.
MI5 and MI6 failed to comment on Abu Zubaydah’s case. Neither the UK government nor Mohammed’s legal team would comment on a possible case over his treatment.
