The source told FMT the decision to drop the suit did not mean there was no merit to his claims. “His legal advisers have decided on a different, more comprehensive strategy”.
Najib’s lawyers, the source said, felt that the move, which had been planned before Najib was charged over the SRC International (SRC) case, was no longer appropriate as they were confident the charges in the SRC case had no merit.
SRC is the former subsidiary of state investment fund 1MDB.
Also, the case against the three investigators might further delay Najib’s chances of clearing his name, especially as the SRC trial had been scheduled by the courts “so far away in February 2019”, the source said.
“They (Najib and his team) are just realigning their strategy to take into account the changes in circumstances and point out that the court has granted liberty to re-file the suits against the three investigators should there be a need in future” said the source.
Earlier today, senior federal counsel Alice Loke, representing Attorney-General (AG) Tommy Thomas, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Mohd Shukri Abdull and Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Amar Singh, said lawyers for Najib had told the High Court registrar during case management that they were dropping the suit against the trio.
When contacted by FMT, Najib’s lawyer Badrul Hisham Abdullah said they had withdrawn the lawsuits as they needed to “realign their case with the other defence lawyers for Najib”.
Najib filed the lawsuit against the three top government officials last month for their roles in the 1MDB investigations, claiming that they were prejudiced against him.
The former prime minister was charged on July 4 with three counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of abuse of power in relation to funds from SRC which allegedly went into his personal bank account
Najib’s case will be mentioned on Aug 8.