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Angry Malaysians slam Najib Razak’s 1MDB sentence reduction: ‘a travesty of justice’
- Najib will be freed in August 2028 after his 12-year jail term was halved by Pardons Board led by King Sultan Abdullah, in one of his final acts in office
- Anti-corruption activists and many Malaysians railed at the decision, saying public confidence in PM Anwar Ibrahim’s government ‘went down the drain’
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Anger and incredulity spilled out across Malaysia at the halving of Najib Razak’s 12-year jail term, as swathes of the public and rival politicians decried the new government and a legal process they say favours the powerful and fails to punish corruption.
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Blame zeroed in on the government of Anwar Ibrahim, which entered power with a zero-tolerance pledge to uproot corruption, yet is now mired in accusations of using corruption cases to trade favours with political allies, which includes Umno, the party of the disgraced former premier Najib.
He was jailed 16 months ago after losing his final appeal against a corruption conviction linked to the 1MDB scandal, which plundered billions of dollars from the Malaysian state.
After a week of rumours, the Pardons Board on Friday said Najib, 70, will be freed in August 2028 after his jail term was slashed, as one of the final acts in office of King Sultan Abdullah, who chaired the panel.
“It’s such a shock. I couldn’t believe it when I read the news,” Joan Chin, a 44-year-old insurance clerk in Kuala Lumpur, told This Week in Asia.
“In an instant, public confidence [in the government] just went down the drain.”
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