KUALA LUMPUR: Corruption charges linked to the 1MDB scandal against Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak were allowed to be dropped by a Malaysian court on Wednesday (Nov 27).
Charges were also dropped for the former treasury secretary-general, Irwan Serigar Abdullah, according to their lawyers. Najib and Irwan were given a discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA).
“These are my brief grounds. First, the prosecution failed to abide by Section 51A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC). Second, the DNAA does not prejudice the prosecution as they can recharge the accused.
Third, this case was registered in 2018, but the trial cannot proceed even when trial dates have been set many times. This is an inordinate delay,” said High Court judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin.
In 2018, the two men faced six counts of criminal breach of trust involving 6.6 billion ringgit (S$1.99 billion) in government funds from the government-run strategic development company 1MDB, which he had co-founded in 2009.
The 1MDB scandal, which began to be exposed in local and international press in 2015, has been called one of the biggest financial scandals in the world.
In 2016, it was called the “largest kleptocracy case to date” by the United States Department of Justice.
According to Malaysian and US authorities, a total of US$4.5 billion (S$6 billion) was siphoned out of 1MDB from 2009 to 2014.
In 2022, Najib received a 12-year jail sentence, having been convicted of graft in a separate case linked to 1MDB.
However, a pardons board led by the King of Malaysia later cut the sentence in half, and the former Prime Minister should have been released from jail in 2028.
On Oct 24, he issued an apology for having mishandled the 1MDB, though both he and Irwan have consistently maintained that they’ve done nothing wrong in relation to the fund.
His son, Mohamad Nizar Mohd Najib, read a letter containing his apology at a media conference.
“It pains me every day to know that the 1MDB debacle happened under my watch as minister of finance and prime minister. For that, I would like to apologize unreservedly to the Malaysian people,” the letter read.
Commenting on today’s outcome, Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee, the former Prime Minister’s lawyer, said, “The court correctly exercised its jurisdiction to discharge our client of the charges, consonant with the law.”
Lawyers for the two men had sought DNAA in July on the grounds that the prosecution had delayed handing over documents to the defence related to the case.
It does not mean an end to the legal troubles for Najib and Irwan in relation to the 1MDB scandal, however. The DNAA ruling allows them to be charged again on similar grounds later on. /TISG
Read also: Najib to face more charges in court related to 1MDB scandal; could be jailed for 20 years