After losing his final appeal in a corruption case related to the misappropriation of the 1MDB state fund, former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has begun serving a 12-year prison sentence.
The country's highest court upheld his conviction on accusations of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering for fraudulently obtaining approximately $10 million from a former unit of the state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The detention center is a vast complex located southeast of the capital that houses up to 5,000 inmates and a separate unit for women.
Razak was initially convicted in July of 2020 and released on bail pending appeals. The son of Malaysia's second prime minister, Razak served as premier from 2009 to 2018, when public outrage over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB corruption scandal led to his election loss.
The British-educated son of Malay nobility, who played golf with Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and other world leaders, will now count murders and drug traffickers among his fellow inmates in Kajang.
Azilah Hadri was a member of Najib's security detail before he was convicted of murder in 2006 for the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu. A fellow police officer who was convicted with Azilah has sought refuge in Australia and is still there.
Azilah accused Najib of ordering the murder in a 2019 court filing seeking to vacate his sentence, an allegation the ex-premier disputed. In 2020, the Federal Court denied Azilah's application.
Rights groups assert that Malaysian jails suffer from overcrowding, poor hygiene, and a lack of medical services, with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and scabies being prevalent.
According to media reports, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who spent a total of eight years in another Malaysian prison, experienced inhumane and degrading conditions, including being served rotten fish "constantly."
However, Najib's former deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, testified in parliament in 2016 that Anwar was granted special treatment based on medical recommendations.
Anwar was incarcerated twice on charges of corruption and sodomy, which he claims were politically motivated. He was pardoned and released by the king days following Najib's 2018 election loss.
Though Malaysian authorities claim to have linked over $1 billion in suspicious transactions to Najib's accounts, he has consistently denied any involvement and pleaded not guilty to all accusations.
