THE verdict in former Malaysian prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s seven-year 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) trial will be delivered on 26 December, the High Court ruled on Friday.
Trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah fixed the date after the defence failed to conclude its final submissions, which had been scheduled to end the same day.
"I know it will spill over to Nov 4. But I can state here and now that I will deliver my decision on Dec 26 (this year)," the judge said in court.
Lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had sought to continue proceedings on Friday afternoon, but the request was denied as the judge had prior commitments. The defence will now wrap up its case on Tuesday, 4 November.
On Boxing Day, Justice Sequerah will decide whether Najib is guilty of misappropriating RM2.2 billion from the state fund or acquitted of all charges in his second 1MDB-linked case.
The 1MDB-Tanore trial began on 28 August 2019 and has spanned 302 days of proceedings since Najib was first charged on 20 September 2018. He faces 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering involving the state investment fund.
Najib is already serving a six-year prison term for separate offences related to SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former 1MDB subsidiary, involving RM42 million in misappropriated funds.
During Friday’s hearing, Shafee reiterated that there was no evidence Najib directly authorised any of the key transactions central to the 1MDB scandal.
Among his arguments, Shafee said Najib never ordered the US$1 billion investment in the PetroSaudi International (PSI) joint venture to be split, which resulted in US$700 million being diverted to Good Star Ltd, a company later linked to fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.
He also claimed that Najib had no role in setting up Aabar Investments PJS Ltd, a bogus entity used in 2013 to channel funds in the third phase of the 1MDB scheme.
“The prosecution’s case rests on a phone call between Najib and former 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh before a 2009 board meeting. Najib allegedly told him to ‘forget about past issues’ and to ‘firm up’ the decision on the PSI joint venture. This was not even a direct instruction,” Shafee argued.
The defence lawyer dismissed the prosecution’s contention that Jho Low acted as Najib’s “mirror image”, arguing that such a concept had no basis in law either in Malaysia or internationally. He similarly rejected the notion of a “top-down” decision-making structure at 1MDB, saying no such legal doctrine existed.
Over nine days of submissions, the defence maintained that the funds in question were donations from Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah, promised to Najib in 2010 and channelled between 2011 and 2014.
Shafee said Najib had been transparent about the funds, informing both AmBank, where the accounts were held, and Bank Negara Malaysia. He added that the money was used for corporate social responsibility programmes and that RM620 million in unspent funds was returned to the sender.
The prosecution countered that the funds were deposited into Najib’s accounts shortly after key 1MDB transactions and argued that the return of money was part of a money-laundering “layering” process. Prosecutors also insisted that “tainted funds cannot be cleansed by good intent.”
In October last year, the court ruled that the prosecution had established a prima facie case, requiring Najib to enter his defence. He began testifying on 2 December, followed by 25 other defence witnesses, including Tengku Datuk Rahimah Sultan Mahmud, the sister of the Sultan of Terengganu, and former 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin.
The long-awaited verdict on Boxing Day will determine Najib’s fate in one of Malaysia’s most high-profile corruption cases. - October 31, 2025
