Malaysia reduces sentence of Najib Razak, disgraced former prime minister

Authorities in Malaysia have halved the sentence of Najib Razak, a former prime minister convicted of stealing millions of dollars from a government fund, a move that has sparked outrage in the country.

The clemency for Mr Najib comes after weeks of speculation in Malaysia that he might be pardoned by King Sultan Abdullah, whose term under Malaysia's unique rotating monarchy ended on Tuesday. But many analysts had said it was unlikely that Mr Najib, who has served just 17 months of his term, would receive any form of clemency because he still faces three ongoing criminal cases related to what is known as the 1MDB scandal.

On Friday, Malaysia's Pardons Board said that Mr Najib, who began a 12-year prison sentence in 2022, will instead be released in August 2028 and have his fine reduced to $11 million, a quarter of the previous fine. But under Malaysian law, he could be released even earlier, in August 2026, if he applies for parole after serving half his term.

The announcement sparked a wave of anger over what many Malaysians said was a culture of impunity among the country's top officials. Much of the money missing from the 1MDB fund has yet to be recovered. In September, a court suddenly dismissed 47 embezzlement charges filed against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

The decision is likely to once again raise questions about the rule of law in Malaysia. It is also likely to deepen public disillusionment with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who came into office on an anti-corruption platform but who critics say has made too many compromises, such as the alliance with Mr Ahmad, to stay in power .

Wong Chin Huat, professor of public administration at Jeffrey Cheah Institute for Southeast Asiaan independent think tank in Malaysia, said the lack of transparency and accountability in Mr Najib's case “undermined public confidence in our legal and political system, and international companies' confidence in Malaysia's investment climate.”

Mr Wong also questioned whether Mr Najib deserved this leniency, adding: “Has he even admitted his guilt and apologized?”

Other analysts saw the decision as a carefully calibrated compromise that would give both the pro-Najib and anti-Najib camps a sense of victory.

“As long as it is neither a full pardon nor a full punishment, both camps can take some solace in the fact that it could be worse,” said Francis E. Hutchinson, the coordinator of the Malaysia Studies Program at the Singapore-based ISEAS. – Yusof Ishak Institute.

As such, Mr Hutchinson said, any fallout should be limited as long as Mr Najib's subsequent lawsuits are allowed to proceed.

The first accusations against Mr. Najib appeared in news reports almost a decade ago. Malaysians — though long accustomed to bribes from senior officials and politicians — were shocked to learn that the prime minister had diverted $700 million from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad Fund, or 1MDB, a government investment fund, into his personal bank accounts .

Furious citizens took to the streets to demand Mr Najib's resignation. The scandal also rocked politics during the 2018 elections, when voters removed Mr Najib from office – the first time in Malaysia's independent history that his political party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), had lost in the national elections.

The US Department of Justice later discovered that Mr Najib and a mysterious tycoon, Jho Low, had taken $4.5 billion from the fund to finance an American film company that produced “The Wolf on Wall Street”; buy a superyacht; and support the lavish lifestyle of Mr Najib, Mr Low and Mr Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor.

In 2017, then-US Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the 1MDB case “kleptocracy at its worst.”

In 2020, Mr Najib was found guilty of seven corruption charges. It was a turning point in Malaysian politics; no top leader had ever been convicted before, and the courts were praised for proving their independence from politics. He began serving his prison sentence in August 2022 after his appeal failed.

Despite Mr Najib's conviction, he still has influence within UMNO, whose members are now part of Mr Anwar's government. The party enjoys significant support among ethnic Malays, the majority, who benefited during Najib's nine-year rule and whom Anwar is now trying to bring to justice.

The United Malays National Organization has long said the case against Mr Najib was politically motivated, and his supporters have always expressed hope that he would emerge from prison and revive his political career.