Instead, judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali used his discretion under section 417 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to bring back the charges from the Session Court for him to hear the cases.
“The seven charges (registered under three separate cases) will be transferred from the Sessions Court to the High Court to expedite the ends of justice,” he said.
Nazlan also allowed Thomas, who is the public prosecutor in the case, to withdraw three money laundering charges against Najib that was framed on Jan 28.
He dismissed an application by the former leader’s defence team to postpone the trial scheduled on Feb 12 pending appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Nazlan said the prosecutor had the discretion to discontinue prosecution at any stage of trial.
“I order a discharge not amounting to an acquittal as the public prosecutor has the powere to withdraw the (three) charges,” he said.
Nazlan said the seven charges should be continued to be tried before the High Court, as the case has generated local and international interest.
“There is also no prejudice to the accused,” he said.
He said the seven charges were registered since July last year and the accused was also facing another 35 charges which had been transferred to the High Court.
Nazlan said the hearing date for seven charges were also fixed six months ago.
Earlier, Thomas told the court that he issued the certificate under Article 145 (3) of the Federal Constitution, Section 418A of the CPC and Section 60 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2009.
However, in view of the Federal Court decisions in Semenyih Jaya (2017) and M Indira Gandhi (2018), he said he was withdrawing the certificate to avoid any possible argument that the transfer (from Sessions Court to High Court) was a nullity.
He said Nazlan could use his discretion (suo motu) under Section 417 of the CPC to transfer these cases before this court.
“This will save time. I am taking taking these steps to prevent any challenge that may be taken at any stage that is bound to delay or nullify the trial and result in unnecessary public expense,” he said.
Najib is facing six charges linked to money laundering and criminal breach of trust in the transfer of RM42 million into his account from former 1MDB unit SRC International.
He was also accused of abusing his power as the prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from the Retirement Fund Inc.