Ex-malaysian PM goes on trial for looting state investment fund

Just two months ago, Najib Razak was a towering figure in Malaysian politics and literally beyond the law. That cloak of privilege and impunity was torn away when anti-corruption police arrested him at his upmarket Kuala Lumpur home.

Since his spectacular defeat in a 9 May general election, the government has swiftly reopened investigations into the multi-billion-dollar looting of the 1MDB state investment fund Mr Razak set up when he took power in 2009.

The now defunct fund amassed billions in debts and is being investigated in the US and several other countries for alleged cross-border embezzlement and money laundering.

In a series of humiliations since his electoral loss, the luxury-loving Mr Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor were banned from leaving the country.

Truckloads of luggage stashed with cash, jewellery and hundreds of expensive designer bags worth a staggering 1.1 billion ringgit (£210 million) were then seized from their home and other properties. Anti-corruption police questioned Mr Razak for hours last month about the 1MDB scandal.

He will be charged in court today, making him one of the few south-east Asian leaders to be prosecuted after losing office. The government said his arrest was related to the suspicious transfer of 42bn ringgit (£7.9bn) from SRC International – a unit of 1MDB – into his bank accounts, but didn’t give details of charges against him.

Mr Razak denies any wrongdoing and has accused the government of a “political vengeance” against his family.

The British-educated former leader, 64, was born into Malaysia’s political elite. His father was the country’s second prime minister and his uncle was the third.

He was thrust into politics in 1976 after his father died, becoming Malaysia’s youngest MP at the age of 22 and the youngest deputy minister two years later. He became prime minister in 2009, replacing Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was blamed for the National Front party’s reduced majority in an election the previous year.

Both finance minister and premier, Mr Razak guided Muslim-majority Malaysia through the global financial crisis of 2009, abolished draconian colonial-era security laws and reached out to ethnic minorities with a “1 Love Malaysia” campaign.

His leadership came under pressure when leaked documents in 2015 showed $US700M (£531m) linked to 1MDB went into his private bank account.

It sparked massive street rallies demanding his resignation, but Mr Razak responded with repressive measures.