Lawyer Hafarizam Harun, who represents Najib, said he had been instructed to retract the suit.
“Lawyers for Tony and MediaRakyat owner Chan Chee Keong agreed on the withdrawal with an undisclosed amount of costs,” he said after meeting High Court judge Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim in chambers.
This is the second lawsuit Najib has withdrawn this month. He retracted his defamation suit against former MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik last week, saying he had to focus on “other pressing matters”.
Pua’s lawyer Michelle Ng said another High Court had fixed June 1 for case management on Najib’s second lawsuit against Pua over his Facebook statement on the tabling of the private member’s bill on the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (RUU 355).
Hafarizam said they would deal with the second lawsuit when the time came.
Najib sued Pua and Chan three years ago over a statement Pua had purportedly made at a fundraising dinner in 2014.
He claimed Pua had made the defamatory remark on 1MDB by stating “Najib created the biggest scandal ever in the history of Malaysia”.
He said the statement was then uploaded by Chan or his agents to YouTube and the MediaRakyat website.
Najib also alleged that Pua’s speech meant he had stolen the people’s money with regard to 1MDB transactions, and that he could not be trusted to hold public office.
Najib’s defamation suit: Court allows Pua to reinstate paras