Reported by Zunaira Saieed

(Excerpt featured below. To read full report, got to: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/world/asia/malaysia-razak-charges-1mdb.html)

A Malaysian court on Friday dropped money-laundering charges against former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is in prison for stealing millions of dollars from a government fund. Prosecutors said they were not ready to proceed with the case even though they had filed the charges six years ago.

The court issued what is called a discharge not amounting to an acquittal, meaning Mr. Najib could face those charges again. But that is unlikely, and the move fueled criticism that the authorities were being lenient with the former prime minister, who remains a political force.

Mr. Najib, 71, was ousted from office and eventually convicted of graft in 2020 in the fallout from the looting of a multibillion sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB. The scandal also led to legal action in the United States because of the involvement of the investment bank Goldman Sachs. 

But last year, Mr. Najib’s prison sentence was halved to six years and his fine reduced to $11 million, a quarter of the original. Since then, Mr. Najib has been petitioning the courts to serve the remainder of his term, which ends in 2028, at home. In November, charges of misappropriating public funds against Mr. Najib were dropped because of prosecutorial delays.