NAJIB Razak failed to overturn his conviction and sentence for seven charges linked to the RM42 million of SRC International Sdn Bhd funds at the Court of Appeal this morning.

A three-member bench chaired by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil delivered its unanimous decision in hybrid proceedings.

Najib was found guilty of seven charges of money-laundering, criminal breach of trust and abuse of power by Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, in July last year. He was sentenced to 12 years’ jail and fined RM210 million.

In delivering the ruling, Karim said the bench agreed with trial judge Nazlan’s finding that Najib had personal interest for the cabinet to approve a government guarantee for a RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc to SRC International.

The judge ruled that Najib’s action in relation to the RM4 billion loan to SRC was not for national interest but for personal benefit.

“There’s no national interest when RM42 million was transferred into Najib’s accounts. Only a national embarrassment,” said Karim as he read out the unanimous decision.

The other judges were Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

The former prime minister and his defence team followed proceedings via Zoom this morning as they were in quarantine after a member of their party had contracted Covid-19 while the judges and the prosecution team were present at the appeals court.

The Court of Appeal judges were in sync with Nazlan as they found no error and no good reason to disagree with the latter’s judgment.

Karim said Nazlan had interpreted and applied correctly the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) charges under section 23 for Najib’s one count of abuse of power.

Najib committed the offences as he had overarching power as the shareholder of SRC when he was the prime minister, finance minister and SRC adviser.

Karim also affirmed Nazlan’s conclusion that Najib was the shadow director and had full dominion over SRC.

The judges found the Arab donation claimed by Najib to be untenable and had no credibility or evidence, therefore, Najib committed three counts of criminal breach of trust under Section 409 of the penal code.

As for Najib’s three counts of money laundering under section 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds from Unlawful Activities Act 2001, Karim said Najib knew the money in his personal bank accounts was derived from illegal and unlawful activities.

Dressed in a suit and tie, Najib looked calm as he listened to the hour-long judgment which was read out by Karim.

It was learnt that Najib was following the proceedings from his home at Pavilion Residences, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, where he is also on a 10-day quarantine after a member of his defence team tested positive for Covid-19. – December 8, 2021.