On Friday, the Malaysian judiciary rejected the appeal submitted by former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak against a 12-year prison sentence he was serving on charges of corruption, thus closing the door to his return to the political arena.

Abdul Razzaq asked the Federal Court to reconsider the rejection of an appeal against his conviction of embezzling large sums of money from the sovereign wealth fund "1MDB".

Court judge Vernon Aung Lam Kyat said "there was no partiality or miscarriage of justice" against the accused, and rejected the appeal.
Najeeb Abdul Razzaq, 69, said that he did not have a fair trial and said that the judge was affected by a conflict of interest and that his defense did not have enough time to examine all the documents.

Razak's 12-year prison sentence is linked to the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($10.1 million) from a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund 1MDB to his personal bank account.

The former prime minister appeared affected by the court's decision during the session attended by his wife, Rosmah Mansour, who was convicted of embezzlement last year.

Najeeb Abdul Razzaq still faces dozens of other charges in the complex corruption case, which could extend his sentence. Most of them relate to his supposed role in the sovereign wealth fund scandal, which was intended to develop the Malaysian economy.

But Najeeb Abdul Razak and his associates are accused of profiting from large-scale purchases, from luxury real estate to works of art to the purchase of a yacht.

The scandal prompted investigations around the world, including in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, for using their financial systems to launder misappropriated money. The scandal had a major role in the defeat of Najib Abdul Razzaq and his party in the 2018 elections.