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Najib acquitted in 1MDB audit tampering case

Mar 03, 2023

Datuk Seri Najib Razak has just been acquitted by the KL High Court, on charges of tampering with the 1MDB audit report.

Co-accused, and ex 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy was also acquitted of abetting the former Prime Minister in committing the offence.

Had they been found guilty, they would have faced jail terms of up to 20 years or a fine of less than five times the amount of gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher.

The judge held that the prosecution had failed to establish a case against Najib under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act.

In this particular case…Najib had been accused of abusing his position as Prime Minister and Finance Minister in 2016, by allegedly instructing for changes to be made to the 1MDB audit report prior to it being submitted to the Public Accounts Committee.

He was accused of doing so to protect himself from civil or criminal action over his role in the handling of 1MDB’s operations.

Najib is currently serving his prison sentence for the SRC International case, although he is still trying to seek a review of his conviction and sentence in that case.

He also faces three other legal cases involving misappropriation of 1MDB funds, criminal breach of trust in relation to payments to International Petroleum Investment Company and money laundering involving SRC International

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The number of flood evacuees in Johor has risen to over 31 thousand overnight.

Segamat remains the worst-affected district, where nearly 12 thousand residents have been forced out of their homes.

The state has also recorded two additional flood-related deaths…taking the total number of fatalities in Johor to three.

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Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Agency says there are also 1,800-plus evacuees in Pahang and over a thousand victims in Negeri Sembilan.

Melaka and Sarawak have under a hundred evacuees each.

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This, as the Met Department forecast severe-level continuous heavy rain for several parts of Pahang and Johor until tomorrow.

Heavy rain can also be expected in Terengganu and Sarawak.

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Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim supports the plea for Members of Parliament from both sides of the political divide to be given equal funding.

The senior PKR MP says refusing to do so is akin to ‘punishing’ the constituents, who would be denied much-needed assistance just because of their political beliefs:

This comes after several Opposition assemblymen urged the government to ensure equal allocations for all MP’s for the benefit of the rakyat.