Malaysia drops Najib’s 6 charges over 1MDB as house arrest rumours swirl

The ruling came as Najib, who is serving a six-year sentence for a separate corruption conviction linked to the 1MDB sovereign fund, is seeking release from jail to serve the remaining four years of his term at home, a highly controversial move given the billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money lost by the fund under his watch.

Najib was charged along with a finance ministry secretary Irwan Siregar with six counts of embezzlement stemming from alleged misappropriations related to payments made by 1MDB to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) in 2015.

But at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Wednesday, Judge Muhammad Jamil Hussin dismissed the case, saying it had taken too long to reach court.

“This case was registered in 2018, but the trial cannot proceed even when trial dates have been set many times,” Muhammad Jamil ruled, calling it an “inordinate delay”.

He ordered Najib and Irwan to be discharged but said his ruling did not amount to an acquittal (DNAA) and “the prosecution … can recharge the accused”.