The Malaysian High Courts Drops The Charges of Ex-Prime Minister Of Malaysia Najib, While He Fights To Serve The Rest of His Sentence At Home

The Malaysian High Courts have dropped the charges against the disgraced former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, citing the lack of evidence to be able to proceed with the case for the time being.

However, Najib is still not off the hook yet, as he was just granted a Discharge Not Amounting to an Acquittal (DNAA), which means that while the court case has temporarily released him from his charges, but the prosecution retains the right to reinstate those same charges if new evidence is found.

Najib has previously been charged on three counts of money laundering, and he was accused of receiving RM 27 million in illegal proceedings from SRC international through his three AM Private Banking accounts back in July 2014.

According to High Court Judge K Muniandy, the Malaysian High Courts were deliberating between setting a new date for the trial or to grant a DNAA as Najib's defence had applied.

And the court agreed to go with the latter, due to prolonged trial delays.

Muniandy said the DNAA was granted as the prosecution failed to show that they can go ahead with the trial in the near future, as the relevant documents necessary to support the charges have yet to be procured, gathered and served on the defence team.

Judge Muniandy added

"The prolonged wait for trial has become a long haul for the accused person, denying him of a timely resolution. This court is also mindful of the prevailing fact that the preferred charges again the accused date back to the offence being committed in 2014, now it is 2025, and the case has not taken off for trial."

Najib was started serving his sentence in Kajang Prison back in August 2022, after the Federal Court upheld the High Court decision.

In 2024, his jail term was halved from 12 to 6 years by the Pardon Board and his fine was reduced from RM 210 million to RM 50 million.

Now, the former Premier is trying to push for the High Courts to allow him to serve the rest of his sentence at home, and has filed for an application to initiate contempt proceedings against a former attorney general for allegedly failing to reveal a royal addendum order allowing him to do so.

Najib has also been on trial for corruption in several other 1MDB-linked cases, for which he was denied any wrongdoings.