KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s former prime minister, Najib Razak, was released on bail on Wednesday, after pleading not guilty to all charges against him in a multi billion-dollar corruption scandal.
“I am confident... I believe in my innocence and this is the best chance to clear my name,” Najib said to reporters outside the Kuala Lumpur High Court. Najib was charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and one charge of abuse of power, in the culmination of a long-running graft investigation involving the state development fund 1MDB.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the 64-year-old Najib if he is convicted, along with many millions of dollars in possible fines.
The court set bail at 1 million ringgit ($247,000) and Najib was forced to surrender his civilian and diplomatic passports.
After Wednesday’s hearing, his son and daughter Noorashman Najib and Noryana Najwa Najib were seen at the court’s payment counter to make the first bail payment.
“If this is the price I have to pay after serving the people for 42years...then I’m willing,” Najib said.
Between August 2011 and March 2015, Najib is accused of channelling $10 million from SRC International, a subsidiary of the state fund 1MDB, into his personal bank account.
Newly appointed attorney-general and lead prosecutor Tommy Thomas said that the state had a “strong prima facie case.”
“We accept that the burden is on us to prove it at the trial... we accept that he is innocent until proven guilty,” he said. Judge Mohamad Sofian Abdul Razak granted Najib’s lawyer Shafee Abdullah’s request for a media gag order. The gag order only applies to SRC International, and not to 1MDB as a whole, Shafee said.
Tommy objected to the gag order, saying that the court may not even have the power to impose the order.
Najib supporters shouted at Tommy before his press conference, with cries including “Freedom!” and criticising him for speaking English, rather than Malay.
Police at the scene arrested a well-known Malay actress and movie director, Ellie Suriati Omar, who was screaming hysterically in Najib’s defence. The start of the criminal case against Najib, who served as the country’s premier from 2009 to 2018, is the latest chapter in his precipitous fall from grace. — dpa
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