Imprisoned former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has withdrawn his appeal against a court ruling denying his request to serve the remainder of his sentence at home, according to a local media report.

Najib, 72, has been imprisoned since August 2022 for his role in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB corruption scandal.

The Edge, a Malaysian news outlet, reported yesterday that Najib is “withdrawing his appeal” challenging a December 22 ruling of the High Court, which dismissed his application to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.

The publication cited an April 3 letter from Najib’s defense team to the Court of Appeal, stating that he was “discontinuing his appeal against all respondents without liberty to file afresh,” in The Edge’s words. The Court reportedly acknowledged the withdrawal in a letter on April 6.

The 1MDB state investment fund was established shortly after Najib’s election in 2009. In the ensuing years, Malaysian investigators claim, at least $4.5 billion was drained from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates through a labyrinth of dummy corporations and bank accounts across the globe. The 1MDB scandal helped bring down Najib’s government in the 2018 general election, and has since led to criminal investigations in a number of other countries, including the United States, Switzerland, and Singapore.

In 2020, Najib was found guilty of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering for illegally receiving around $10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. In August 2022, he lost his final appeal against his conviction and began his 12-year sentence at Kajang prison in Selangor.

Since then, Najib, who has denied any wrongdoing and apologized for his mishandling of the 1MDB fund, has attempted a number of legal and political maneuvers to water down his sentence. In early 2024, he succeeded in gaining a royal pardon from Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah of Pahang, the country’s then-king, which halved his prison sentence.

Najib insists that the Pardon Board’s decision to approve the pardon was accompanied by a royal “addendum order” that entitled him to serve the remainder of his sentence at ​home, accusing the authorities of deliberately ignoring or concealing it. He then initiated legal action, aiming to compel the authorities to confirm the existence of the order and to execute it.

On December 22, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed Najib’s request. In handing down the court’s ruling, Judge Alice Loke stated that the existence of the order was not in dispute – its authenticity has been confirmed by the Royal House of Pahang – but that it was not legally enforceable as it was not made with the consultation of the Pardons Board, as required under the constitution. A ‌decision ⁠that Najib subsequently appealed.

If confirmed, the withdrawal of Najib’s appeal would mark another setback for the former leader, who was sentenced to a further 15 years in prison in a separate, larger 1MDB-related trial on December 26. Judges found Najib guilty of 25 charges, including four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering related to 1MDB funds worth RM2.27 billion ($574 million). Najib was also hit with a massive fine of RM11.38 billion ($2.9 billion).

According to The Edge, Najib has also discontinued his attempt to institute contempt proceedings against present Federal Court judge Tan Sri Ahmad Terriruddin Mohd Salleh, whom he accused of failing to reveal the royal addendum order.

“The contention by the accused that the charges against him were a witch hunt and politically motivated were debunked by the cold, hard and incontrovertible evidence against him that pointed towards the accused having abused his own powerful position in ⁠1MDB, coupled with the extensive powers conferred upon him,” Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said in his verdict.