Najib’s lawyer Hafarizam Harun said Justice Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamad, sitting in chambers, dismissed Ezam’s application to halt the striking-out hearing.
Ezam sought the stay pending his appeal against the court’s earlier decision in refusing to include a Singapore court’s documents as evidence in his case.
“The court found no special circumstances to warrant a stay,” Hafarizam said, adding the court will hear the application by Najib and the directors to nullify Ezam’s lawsuit on March 27.
Hafarizam added the court ordered Ezam to pay RM10,000 in costs to Najib and the directors.
The High Court in January dismissed Ezam’s application to include records of a Singapore court proceedings involving banker Yeo Jiawei, in which the prosecution presented evidence that businessman Low Taek Jho was giving directives in 1MDB.
The records also revealed that former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi had represented to Deutsche Bank Malaysia that Good Star Limited (GSL) belonged to a Saudi Arabian company.
Actually, GSL was owned by the businessman, better known as Jho Low, the prosecution in the case claimed.
Yeo, a former BSI Singapore wealth planner, was sentenced to 54 months in jail on July 12 for money laundering and cheating in relation to a global probe involving billions of ringgit allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.
On April 14, 2017, Ezam, a former Umno member and PKR Youth chief, filed the suit against Najib and 15 others to demand that they return at least US$3.657 billion to the sovereign fund.
He claimed the money, borrowed by 1MDB, was lost due to breach of fiduciary duty by these individuals.
He said the directors, who held their posts between 2009 and 2016, were named as defendants because they lost the money and did not take steps to recover it.
Since Najib was also the finance minister, he contended the government would not take any legal action to recover the money.
The 13 former directors he named were Shahrol Azral, Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, Kamal Mohd Ali, Norazman Ayob, Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, Ismee Ismail, Ong Gim Huat, Ashvin Jethanand Valiram, Arul Kanda Kandasamy, Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman @ Mohamed, Mohd Bakke Salleh, Azlan Mohd Zainol and Tengku Rahimah Puteri Mahmud Shah.
In his statement of claim, Ezam said between 2009 and 2011, eight directors transferred US$1.03 billion to GSL for use in a joint venture with PetroSaudi International Ltd (PSI).
He said in 2012, they transferred US$1.367 billion to Aabar Investment PJS Ltd, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
The company has an almost identical name to Aabar Investment PJS (without the “Ltd”), a subsidiary of International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), which was supposed to receive the money.
Ezam said that in 2013, seven directors paid US$1.26 billion to Tanore Finance Corporation (TFC) for a joint venture with Aabar to establish Abu Dhabi Malaysia Investment Company Ltd (ADMIC).
1MDB and the government had, as a result, suffered losses and damages, he said.
Ezam said he was filing the suit in his capacity as a citizen and taxpayer as he would be burdened to repay the loans taken by 1MDB.
Najib had filed an application to annul the suit on July 12 last year, arguing Ezam had no legal standing to bring the lawsuit and that he (Najib) had been wrongly made a party to the action.
The government, 1MDB and the directors individually later filed their striking-out applications.