Malaysia’s Najib discharged over US$6.3 million money laundering case
The ruling comes after the former prime minister was also given a legal reprieve last year in a separate 1MDB-related embezzlement case
A judge on Friday discharged disgraced former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak from a US$6.3 million money laundering case after ruling that the prosecution had failed to provide relevant documents to the defence.
The ruling marks the second time a case involving Najib has been dismissed due to prosecutorial inaction, raising fresh questions about the conduct and priorities of the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC).
Najib, who led the country for nine years until his defeat in the 2018 general election, is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence following his 2020 conviction in the first of several 1MDB-related cases. For this case, he has maintained that he was granted the right to home detention under the directive of Malaysia’s previous king.
On Friday, High Court Judge K. Muniandy granted Najib’s application for a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) after defence lawyer Shafee Abdullah argued that it was unjust to keep the former prime minister in legal limbo for more than six years without a confirmed trial date.
“[Najib] is very happy simply because there are not too many cases overhanging his head [now],” the lawyer told reporters after the verdict.
A DNAA does not absolve the accused of an alleged offence and allows the prosecution to refile charges at a later date.
Najib, now 72, was initially charged in February 2019 with three counts of receiving 27 million ringgit (US$6.3 million) in proceeds from unlawful activities through three personal bank accounts on July 8, 2014.
Last week, the court heard that the prosecution had repeatedly failed to furnish documents relevant to the case to the defence over the past six years.
The latest ruling echoes a similar legal reprieve granted in November 2024, when the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed a 1MDB-related embezzlement case involving Najib and former finance ministry secretary general Irwan Serigar Abdullah. That case centred on the alleged misappropriation of US$1.5 billion tied to a settlement between 1MDB and Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).
In that case, the prosecution similarly failed to bring the matter to trial within a reasonable time.
“This case was registered in 2018, but the trial cannot proceed even when trial dates have been set many times,” Judge Muhammad Jamil Hussin ruled at the time, calling it an “inordinate delay”.
Najib is still facing charges in the main 1MDB trial involving US$4.5 billion allegedly embezzled from the sovereign wealth fund. The case has been ongoing since August 2018.
Aside from Najib, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was granted a DNAA in 2023 for 47 corruption-related charges, including criminal breach of trust, bribery and money laundering. Former federal territories minister Tengku Adnan Mansor was similarly discharged in 2020 over a 1 million ringgit (US$240,000) bribery charge.
In 2020, former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman was granted a full acquittal over 46 charges of corruption and money laundering linked to timber concessions in the state instead of his original application for a DNAA. The verdict paved the way for him to become Sabah’s governor earlier this year.
