News - Middle East: Malaysia's top court upholds former PM Najib Razak's conviction relating to a multi-billion dollar graft scandal, ordering him to begin his 12-year jail sentence.

On Tuesday, The five-member Federal Court panel declared it unanimously found the high court judge was right in his judgment.

“We find the appeal devoid of any merits. We find the conviction and sentence to be safe,” Chief Justice Maimun Tuan Mat said on behalf of a five-judge panel.

The official also added, “Based on the foregoing, it is our unanimous view that the evidence led during the trial points overwhelmingly to guilt on all seven charges.”

1MDB (Malaysia Development Berhad) was a development fund that Najib co-founded shortly after taking power in 2009, which according to the prosecutors, some $4.5 billion was stolen from it.

The former prime minister who has been on bail since 2018, faced a shocking election defeat in the same year, with allegations of the embezzlement of billions of dollars from state fund 1MDB overshadowing the campaign.