Kuala Lumpur:
Malaysia's Pardon Board said on Friday it has halved the prison sentence for former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is currently in prison for corruption, to six years.
Najib Razak was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2022 for crimes related to the misuse of public funds in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB financial scandal.
“After considering opinions and recommendations, the Pardon Board has decided to grant a 50 percent reduction in the sentence and fine imposed on Najib Razak,” the board said in a statement.
The board, which was chaired by Malaysia's former king Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah and included the attorney general, met on Monday – two days before the king handed over the rotating throne to a successor.
The board did not provide other reasons for the decision.
It also said Najib Razak would be released in 2028 and his fine reduced to 50 million ringgit ($10.6 million).
If he did not pay the fine, an additional year would be added to his prison sentence, the board said.
Najib Razak's lawyers and government officials could not be reached for comment.
References for harm reform
James Chin, professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia, said the sentence reduction could damage Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's reform credentials after he campaigned on rooting out corruption during the 2022 election.
“The reduction in Najib's prison sentence reminds us that in Malaysia there are two rules: one for the powerful elite and one for the normal people,” Chin told AFP.
Najib Razak was found guilty in 2020 of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust over the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($8.9 million) from former 1MDB unit SRC International to his personal bank account.
His attempt to overturn the prison sentence was rejected by Malaysia's highest court.
The 70-year-old, who was prime minister from 2009 to 2018, claimed he was not given a fair hearing, claiming a judge had a conflict of interest and that his new legal team was not given enough time to review case documents. .
He was ousted in the 2018 polls by an opposition alliance of Malaysia's political patriarch Mahathir Mohamad amid anger over the scandal.
The king has the power to pardon convicted figures in Malaysia and his role is given considerable prestige, especially among the country's Malay-Muslim majority.
In 2018, Sultan Muhammad V pardoned then-opposition leader Anwar, who had served a prison sentence for sexual assault.
Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with the throne changing hands every five years between the rulers of the nine Malaysian states led by a centuries-old Islamic royal family.
Najib Razak, whose wife Rosmah Mansor was found guilty of transplantation in 2022, may face dozens more charges.
Most are related to his alleged role in the 1MDB scandal, which led to money laundering investigations around the world, including in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.
It is alleged that billions of dollars were stolen by a number of 1MDB players and used to buy everything from a superyacht to works of art.
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