Bellinzona

In 2022, Switzerland's federal criminal court in Bellinzona cleared the two after accepting their account of a "gentlemen's agreement" for the payment.

The verdict was read out in Swiss federal criminal court in the southern town of Bellinzona on Wednesday.

The three-judge panel in Bellinzona, which is home to the Swiss federal criminal court, is to hear arguments in the case through the end of April.

The joint-venture deal called for 1MDB to pour in $1 billion and for PetroSaudi to contribute assets consisting of oil fields in Turkmenistan and Argentina valued at $2.7 billion, even though the oil company didn’t actually own those assets, according to the criminal court in the southern city of Bellinzona.

Human rights groups believe the trial, taking place in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona, could be a warning to repressive governments everywhere that the arm of the law can be very long indeed.