Malaysia's former Prime Prime Najib Razak jailed: 5 quick facts

Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak has been sent to jail. His 12-year sentence came into effect after the country’s top court rejected his appeal. The 69-year-old's charges relate to a corruption scandal involving state-owned wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The final ruling by the country’s apex court brings the curtains down on a spectacular political career for Razak, who until four years ago was Malaysia’s most powerful political leader. His involvement in the 1MDB scandal brought a stunning election defeat.

The British-educated Razak was the Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2009 to 2018. During these years nearly $4.5 billion were stolen from 1MDB - co-founded by Najib during his first year as prime minister in 2009. Investigators later traced more than $1 billion of 1MDB money to accounts linked to Najib.

In 2020, a court had found him guilty on seven counts - centred on a total of 42m ringgit ($9.4 million) which was transferred from SRC International - a former unit of 1MDB - into Razak’s private accounts. He was sentenced to 12 years' jail and a fine of 210m ringgit ($46.8m). The ruling was upheld today.

Razak faces a total of 21 counts of money-laundering and four cases of abuse of power. He denies any wrongdoing. Not all options are close to him after today’s ruling. The former PM can still seek a royal pardon but the conviction means that he cannot contest elections.