- Ex PM's lawyer says that prosecution can return to the charges.
- Najib “no longer” has a sword of Damocles hanging on his head.
- He is still waiting for a verdict in the biggest trial he faces.
Kuala Lumpur: The Superior Court of Malaysia has registered but not absorbed to former Prime Minister Najib Razak of money laundering charges in a long -lasting case that involves an old unit of the state -owned state fund of the Scandal 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), his lawyer said on Friday.
Najib has been in prison since August 2022 after being convicted of corruption and money laundering on Malversados Funds by SRC International, a former 1MDB subsidiary, of which the authorities of Malaysia and the United States say that approximately $ 4.5 billion were stolen in a complex globe complex scheme.
He also faced three money laundering charges from more than 27 million ringgit ($ 6.4 million) allegedly embezzled SRC.
The case had stagnated repeatedly since 2019 due to procedural delays, which led to the Superior Court of Kuala Lumpur to grant Najib's request from a discharge that does not equals an acquittal (ADNA) on Friday, his lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told reporters.
Muhammad Shafee said the decision was fair, since the Prosecutor's Office was still free to restart the charges once they were ready to proceed.
“Then (Najib) is not waiting or, as they say, no longer has the sword of Damocles hanging on his head,” he said.
The Office of the Attorney General did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Friday's decision was the second time that charges linked to 1MDB against Najib have been withdrawn. Last year, a court allowed another application for ADNA due to procedural delays in a corruption case against former prime minister and the former Treasury Chief of the country.
In 2023, it was also acquitted by separate manipulation charges with a government audit in 1MDB.
Najib is still waiting for a verdict in the largest trial that faces the 1MDB scandal, and the court is expected to listen to closing arguments in October.
He has denied all the charges filed against him.
Najib is also forcing the rest of his prison sentence under house arrest, and has tried to force the Government to confirm the existence of a real order that, according to him, would allow him to do so.
