The Malaysian Insight

THE Court of Appeal today upheld the decision of High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Ghazali and found former prime minister Najib Razak guilty of all seven charges of abuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering in relation to SRC International, a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

A three-member bench chaired by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil delivered the unanimous decision in hybrid proceedings held in person and via Zoom as Najib and his lawyers were under quarantine for being Covid-19 close contacts.

The decision was delivered by Karim who took an hour to read out the judgment. Here are the most salient points from the court’s decision today.

A national embarrassment

Karim said the court found that Najib’s actions in relation to the SRC funds had nothing to do with “national interest” but rather for “personal benefit”.

He also called Najib’s actions a “national embarrassment”.

While Najib made sure that SRC was given a RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc, he made no attempt to later repay the loan, Karim said.

He said Najib had also abused his power, as the prime minister and finance minister at the time, to get the cabinet’s approval on the loan.

The judge said Najib was also fully aware of the money meant for SRC sitting in his personal bank account and yet he made no attempt to do anything about it.

This, he said, clearly shows misappropriation.

Shadow director

The court agreed with Nazlan that Najib was indeed a “shadow director” in SRC as he had the authority to hire and fire.

It was also shown that Najib was the person who signed appointment letters for the directors of SRC.

By virtue of his position as a shadow director, and the fact that Najib was the prime minister and the finance minister, this meant SRC directors had to follow Najib’s instructions, and there is no contradictory evidence to show that they did not.

Arab donation a concoction

The judge also said the claims that the RM2.6 billion that was deposited into Najib’s personal accounts came from the Saudi king was untenable.

Karim said he did not see any reason why the Arabs would have deposited the donation meant for Najib into SRC’s account, adding that the Arabs were also not called to testify during the trial stage at the High Court.

The judge said the defence held no credibility as the flow of money into Najib’s accounts clearly shows that it came from SRC.

This, Karim said, showed that the money came from unlawful activities and therefore, he upheld the Anti-Money Laundering Act and criminal breach of trust charges. – December 8, 2021.