'Glaring evidence' 1MDB funds siphoned as court rejects Najib's defence that charges were politically motivated

Friday 25 Sep 2026

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PUTRAJAYA (Dec 26): The court on Friday rejected former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's claims that the charges brought against him in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial were "politically motivated".

In delivering his verdict in the 1MDB-Tanore trial, judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah found that the argument did not hold water given the evidence before him.

"The defence argued that the charges proffered against the accused were driven and motivated by the forces of politics.

"[This contention however] cannot hold true in light of the glaring evidence that large sums of money were siphoned and diverted from what was supposed to be a sovereign fund to the accounts of the companies associated with [fugitive Low Taek Jho (Jho Low)] and ultimately into the accounts of the accused," Sequerah said.

The judge also noted that the fallout of the 1MDB saga was an international one with court cases in several other jurisdictions, including the US.

"There is no basis, therefore, to the defence contention that the charges against the accused were politically motivated," he said.

Najib has always maintained that the 1MDB trial, along with the other cases levelled against him in 2018 following the fall of the Barisan Nasional government, was politically motivated.

He had argued that the cases were done in haste and that the investigations into the ongoing 1MDB-Tanore trial were shoddy.

Testifying in his defence, Najib, who was also a former finance minister, repeated that the authorities never explained nor inquired about the specifics of the charges levelled against him.

This, he argued, deprived him of the opportunity of presenting his complete perspective and restricted him from mounting a successful defence.

The Edge is covering the trial live here.

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