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Friday, July 10, 2026
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Photo: Facebook screengrab/ Najib Razak
Malaysia
1 min.Read

Will Najib see jail time?

The Independent
By The Independent
Now that the axe has fallen, albeit a little closer on former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the question is, will he see jail time?
The Kuala Lumpur High Court had ruled, this week (Nov 11), that Najib has a case to answer in all seven charges in relation to the matter of SRC International Sdn Bhd, involving RM42 million.
Because of the sheer number of witnesses that the prosecution has already presented and the number of defence witnesses that will be offered to rebut the prosecution, the case, by the time it reaches the final court of Appeal, the Federal Court, may take several years.
And some are betting that the matter will drag on way past General Elections 15, which must be held by 2023.
Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Najib’s lead defence lawyer, said that he expects the appeal and counter appeal process to stretch for years.
And, the bet is that it will indeed go beyond the statutory requirement of 5 years. If that happens, the political makeup and national sentiments may radically change.
Najib was charged for three criminal breach of trust, an abuse of power and three money laundering offences in the SRC matter.
Najib’s veteran lawyer, Shafee, had hinted that the SRC case would indeed be a lengthy affair, and with that hint, a chance of a reprieve if Pakatan Harapan was not returned to power.
Describing the amount of work involved to reporters, he said “the record will be taller than you if you stand up, maybe double your length. The have got to prepare, and the judge has got to prepare the judgment and then we have got to go to the Court of Appeal first.”
Shafee added that it would then take three to four weeks of hearing. After that, the court records and transcriptions need to be prepared, before it goes to the Appeals the Federal Court.
Because of the lengthy process involved at all levels, many think that the matter will drag beyond 2023, by which time fresh general elections must be called.
Najib and his supporters are hoping and betting that the tide and the judicial zeitgeist will somehow change in his favour.
Shafee had broadly hinted at this when he suggested that the whole process would take a very long time.
If I was a betting person, I would wager that Najib would probably get off this case
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