KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Najib Razak has withdrawn his civil suit against the government for wrongful prosecution.
During proceedings at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Friday (Sep 9), Najib’s counsel Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaludidin informed the court that the civil suit against the government has been withdrawn.
“(The lawsuit against the) Second defendant has been discontinued,” said Mr Firoz Hussein to judge Ahmad Bache, referring to the Malaysian government.
According to Malaysian media reports, this leaves former attorney-general Tommy Thomas as the sole defendant in the civil action taken by Najib.
Malaysiakini reported that Najib’s lawyers filed the notice of discontinuance of the civil suit against the government on Thursday.
The notice, however, did not spell out the reasons for doing so.
In the suit, Najib is seeking RM1.9 million (US$422,000) in damages and a declaration that Mr Thomas had committed misfeasance in public office.
In October last year, his legal team filed the lawsuit against Mr Thomas and the government, claiming the alleged wrongful prosecution of several criminal cases against him.
Najib contended that Mr Thomas had committed misfeasance in public office, malicious process and negligence.
At that time, the New Straits Times (NST) reported that Najib, in his suit, claimed the charges against him were part of a move planned in advance by Mr Thomas. Najib also claimed that the charges were in line with the agenda of the former Pakatan Harapan (PH) ruling government.
Mr Thomas was the attorney-general when PH was the ruling coalition between May 2018 and February 2020.
NST quoted Najib as claiming that in 2015, Mr Thomas had met Dr Mahathir Mohamad to discuss Najib’s alleged wrongdoing and mismanagement involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) funds.
He was also alleged to have advised Dr Mahathir to take civil and criminal action against Najib over his involvement in 1MDB.
Najib is currently facing several criminal trials linked to 1MDB. The trials surrounding 1MDB-Tanore and tampering of a 1MDB audit report are ongoing.
In the 1MDB-Tanore trial, Najib is charged with four counts of abuse of power in enriching himself with RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds, and 21 counts of money laundering of the same amount.
In the 1MDB audit report tampering trial, Najib is charged with abuse of power as a public officer in his capacity as the then prime minister and finance minister in altering the 1MDB audit report for the Public Accounts Committee in 2016.
Additionally, Najib is jointly charged with former Finance Ministry secretary general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah with criminal breach of trust involving RM6.6 billion of funds linked to International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC). The trial for the IPIC case has yet to begin.