(Bloomberg) -- Jailed former Malaysian premier Najib Razak apologized for the 1MDB scandal but denied that he siphoned money from the troubled fund.
In a statement read by his son at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Thursday, Najib said recent court hearings showed he wasn’t a mastermind of the multibillion-dollar scandal. He also said he didn’t realize the money sent to his bank accounts came from 1MDB funds.
“It pains me every day that 1MDB happened when I was prime minister and finance minister,” Najib said. “I would like to apologize unreservedly. I hope the process of justice will be on my side and prove that I am not guilty.”
Najib’s comments come ahead of a High Court decision on Oct. 30 on whether to call him to enter his defense or acquit him in one of the several cases against him. In this particular case, Najib is facing charges of abuse of power and money laundering for obtaining 2.3 billion ringgit ($529 million) from 1MDB funds between 2011 and 2014.
He’s currently serving a jail sentence after being convicted in 2022 on three counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of abuse of power in relation to 1MDB.
The former leader, whose coalition lost the 2018 general election in part due to public outrage over the scandal, had his 12-year jail sentence halved in January by a royal pardon.
He’s seeking to serve the rest of his term under house arrest, saying there’s a royal decree to that effect. In July, a Malaysian court dismissed his petition, ruling that the affidavits that Najib submitted were “pure hearsay.”
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