MEXICO’S EX-ATTORNEY GENERAL TO GO TO TRIAL OVER 43 MISSING STUDENTS — AP, Wednesday 24 August 2022
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The former attorney general who oversaw Mexico’s original investigation into the 2014 disappearances of 43 students from a radical teachers college will go to trial on charges of forced disappearance, not reporting torture, and official misconduct, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Jesus Murillo Karam, 74, served as attorney general from 2012 to 2015. He announced in 2014 that the students had been abducted by local police, turned over to a drug gang, killed, their bodies burned at a garbage dump and the remains dumped in a river — calling it the “historic truth.” But independent investigations and the current Attorney General’s Office have discounted that version, asserting that various levels of authorities were involved and that evidence and crime scenes were altered. The judge also ruled that Murillo Karam remain in jail as the case moves forward.
MALAYSIA’S EX-PM NAJIB RAZAK GOES TO JAIL AFTER LOSING FINAL APPEAL IN 1MDB GRAFT CASE — Reuters, Tuesday 23 August 2022
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) — Malaysia’s top court ordered former prime minister Najib Razak to begin a 12-year prison sentence on Tuesday after upholding a guilty conviction on charges related to the multi-billion dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. Investigators have said some $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB — co-founded by Najib in 2009 — and that over $1 billion went to accounts linked to Najib. The British-educated son of Malay nobility held the premiership from 2009 to 2018, when public anger over the graft scandal brought election defeat. He was found guilty of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering, and sentenced to 12 years in jail and a 210 million ringgit (US$46.84 million) fine. The conviction means Najib will lose his parliamentary seat and cannot contest elections. Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said the panel of judges had unanimously dismissed Najib’s appeals: “The defence is so inherently inconsistent and incredible that it has not raised reasonable doubt on the case.”