Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak’s new prison lodgings might be less than an hour’s drive from his mansion in Kuala Lumpur’s affluent Bukit Tunku neighborhood, but it is a world away from the luxury that he is used to.
Najib on Tuesday lost his final appeal on a 12-year jail sentence for corruption and was taken under heavy security to the country’s largest jailhouse in Kajang — a sprawling complex southeast of the capital that holds up to 5,000 prisoners and includes a women’s facility.
First convicted in July 2020, Najib had been out on bail pending appeals. The country’s top court upheld his guilty verdict over criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering charges for illegally receiving about US$10 million from a former unit of state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The son of Malaysia’s second prime minister, Najib held the office from 2009 to 2018, when public anger over the multibillion dollar graft scandal at 1MDB brought election defeat.
Having been golf buddies with former US presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and other world leaders, the British-educated son of Malay nobility now counts murderers and drug traffickers among his fellow inmates in Kajang.
One of them, Azilah Hadri, was a member of Najib’s security detail before he was convicted of murder for the 2006 killing of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.
Azilah is on death row, while a fellow policeman who was convicted along with him sought sanctuary in Australia, where he remains.
In a 2019 court filing seeking to set aside his conviction, Azilah accused Najib of ordering the murder, a claim the former leader denied.
The Malaysian Federal Court rejected Azilah’s application in 2020.
Rights groups say that Malaysian prisons are overcrowded, have poor hygiene and lack medical facilities, with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and scabies common.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who spent a total of eight years incarcerated at another Malaysian prison, has said he experienced inhumane and degrading conditions, including being served rotten fish “all the time.”
However, Najib’s former deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, told parliament in 2016 that Anwar obtained privileges based on medical advice, including a customized hospital bed, a desk, hot showers and a special diet.
Anwar was also given access to the prison library, received regular visitors, and was allowed to leave for hospital treatments and to attend trial, Ahmad Zahid said.
Anwar was jailed twice on corruption and sodomy charges, which he says were politically motivated.
He was pardoned by the king and released days after Najib’s election defeat in 2018.
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