Former Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has been charged with failing to declare tens of millions of dollars worth of assets, becoming the country’s third former prime minister to face criminal charges after leaving office. The 66-year-old pleaded not guilty at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Thursday to a charge that alleges he failed to provide a complete declaration of assets to Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency. He is accused of concealing holdings worth about $40m, spread across nine currencies, as well as bars of gold and silver.
His lawyer, Amer Hamzah Arshad, said at a media conference that the charge was essentially a failure to comply with a notice to declare certain assets. The judge set bail at 300,000 ringgit ($74,504) and rejected the request to confiscate his passport, finding no evidence of flight risk. He is due to return to court on September 29 .
If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison. Ismail Sabri was PM for 15 months, from August 2021 to November 2022 – Malaysia’s shortest prime ministerial term. Last March, Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency said he had submitted an assets declaration after being ordered to do so as part of its investigation into alleged corruption and money laundering.
He is the third former prime minister to be prosecuted in recent years over alleged corruption-related activities. Former Prime Minister Najib Razak is serving a reduced six-year prison sentence after his conviction in a case tied to the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB state investment fund. He was sentenced last year to a further 15 years in his second and largest graft trial linked to 1MDB and still faces other proceedings.
Another former prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, is currently on trial on corruption and money-laundering charges.
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