Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak acquitted of audit tampering
The High Court of Malaysia on March 3 acquitted former Prime Minister Najib Razak of audit tampering, but he will continue to serve his 12-year prison term from another case.
Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak (centre) arrives at a trial in Kuala Lumpur on August 28, 2019. (Photo: AFP/VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The High Court of Malaysia on March 3 acquittedformer Prime Minister Najib Razak of audit tampering, but he will continueto serve his 12-year prison term from another case.
High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlansaid state prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove theircase that Najib tampered with an official audit report on the state fund 1MDB.
Arul Kanda Kandasamy, former Presidentand CEO of 1MDB, was also acquitted.
Prosecutors alleged that Najib had ordereda report on the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund by the government's official auditbody to be altered in February 2016. Meanwhile, Kandawas charged with assisting the former PM.
The acquittal from the tampering chargedoes not affect Najib’s current jail sentence.
Najib, 69, is currently serving a12-year jail sentence for power abuse, money laundering and criminal breach of trust over the transfer of42 million ringgit (10.1 million USD) from SRC International, a former 1MDBunit, to his personal bank account.
Malaysia'shighest court dismissed his final appeal on that case in August 2022 andordered him to immediately begin serving his sentence.
He is still facing dozens more chargesrelated to 1MDB.
The 1MDB fundwas set up by then PM Najib Razak in 2009 with the aim of serving Malaysia’sdevelopment. However, it was the centre of the scandalous loss of billions ofUS dollar believed to be corrupt money transferred to other countries forlaundering, leading to a series of investigations in Malaysia and somecountries like the US, Switzerland and Singapore./.
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Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak (centre) arrives at a trial in Kuala Lumpur on August 28, 2019. (Photo: AFP/VNA) 
