Jailed Malaysian ex-PM Najib discharged from hospital after testing negative for Covid-19
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Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak was admitted to hospital last week after testing positive for Covid-19.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KUALA LUMPUR – Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has been discharged from hospital and returned to prison after testing negative for Covid-19, a spokesman said in a statement on Sunday.
Najib, 70, is serving a 12-year prison sentence after being found guilty of graft and money laundering in a case related to a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal. He was admitted to hospital last week after testing positive for Covid-19.
Najib was convicted in July 2020 of charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million (S$12.1 million) from SRC International, a unit of state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
US and Malaysian investigators estimate that some US$4.5 billion (S$6 billion) was stolen from 1MDB – co-founded by Najib during his first year as prime minister in 2009 – and that more than US$1 billion went to accounts linked to him.
Various recipients of the siphoned 1MDB funds used the money to buy luxury assets and real estate, a Picasso painting, a private jet, a superyacht, hotels and jewellery, and to finance the 2013 Hollywood film The Wolf Of Wall Street, investigators have said.
Najib’s sentence was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in December 2021, and later upheld by the Federal Court, the highest court in Malaysia, following a final appeal in August 2022.
Najib’s only hope for release now rests on his bid for a royal pardon from the powerful and wealthy ruler of the southern Johor state, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar.
A minister said in April that a royal pardon was in the hands of the “court of compassion”. REUTERS
