Razak Mohamed Lazim’s seven-week jail sentence: The royalties and email offences explained

Former MUIS senior director Razak Mohamed Lazim was sentenced to seven weeks’ jail in Singapore on September 18, 2026, for two offences: misappropriating S$68,629 owed to Madrasah Irsyad Zuhri Al-Islamiah and accessing the school’s email server without permission after leaving his position there. He had pleaded guilty to the offences in July. 62

How the textbook royalties reached Irsyad Trust Limited

Razak had been an executive director of the madrasah and a senior director for madrasahs at the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS). Reporting on the case also identifies him as a director and shareholder of Irsyad Trust Limited (ITL), which received textbook-related payments. 714

The disputed money came from arrangements involving textbooks developed by the school. For a payment in February 2020, printing firm Key-Orient Lamitec was to pay S$116,671 to ITL and S$68,629 to the madrasah, which held the copyright. At Razak’s request, the combined S$185,300 went to ITL instead, with the school’s portion meant to be passed on. The S$68,629 was not transferred to the school, leaving it without that money for about two years. 89

A secondary account of the sentencing reports that ITL’s board had instructed Razak to pay the madrasah S$70,000, but that payment did not follow at the time. The same account says restitution was made before investigations began. The reporting available here does not establish a fuller repayment sequence. 9

What happened to the school’s email access?

The second offence concerned Razak’s access to the madrasah’s email server after he had resigned. Court documents cited by The Straits Times say he wanted to keep receiving messages sent to an address associated with his former role; the prosecution said he was no longer entitled to access the server or use that address. 7

A secondary account reports that Razak created an email account on the server and arranged for messages from his former work address to be forwarded to a personal inbox. He pleaded guilty to one computer-misuse charge arising from unauthorised access. A separate email-server charge was later disposed of without an acquittal. 923

Why seven weeks, and what happened to the other charges?

District Judge Kamala Ponnampalam imposed the seven-week sentence for the misappropriation and computer-misuse offences. One secondary account says prosecutors sought two to three months’ jail while the defence asked for a S$7,000 fine. The excerpts of primary reporting provided here do not establish the judge’s detailed reasoning for selecting seven weeks, so the sentence should not be presented as a ruling on the separate cheating allegations. 796

Razak received a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on two charges alleging that he cheated Temasek Foundation International of S$784,900, as well as on another email-server charge. Those charges resulted in neither convictions nor acquittals; a discharge not amounting to an acquittal leaves open the possibility of prosecution later. Razak’s lawyers said he would appeal the jail sentence, and he was reported to have been released on S$30,000 bail. 32