KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah were today granted discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) from all six charges in a trial involving RM6.6 billion of government funds.

High Court judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin granted the order by way of the inherent powers of the court after lawyers representing both the accused wrote in their formal applications seeking a DNAA for their client.

"These are my brief grounds. First, the prosecution failed to abide by Section 51A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

”Second, the DNAA does not prejudice the prosecution as they can recharge the accused.

”Third, this case was registered in 2018 but the trial cannot proceed even when trial dates have been set many times. This is an inordinate delay,” he ruled.

Section 51A of the CPC requires the prosecution to provide the accused with certain documents before the commencement of a trial.

A DNAA would allow the prosecution to charge the accused with the same charges in the future, as opposed to an acquittal where the prosecution cannot bring the accused back to the court to be charged with the same charges.

In other words, both men do not walk scot-free as the DNAA simply means that they can be charged again on similar grounds at a later date.

Earlier, the court heard submissions from counsels on whether he could use his inherent powers to give the DNAA as the application was made by the defence, not the prosecution.

Under Section 254 of the CPC, the prosecution can apply for a DNAA but the final decision rests with the court.

Deputy prosecution head II Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi conceded that the judge could invoke his inherent powers to grant the DNAA order and that it was up to the court’s discretion.

In July, both Najib and Mohd Irwan Serigar made separate requests to the court seeking for a DNAA due to the prosecution’s delay in handing over hundreds of documents to the defence to mount its case against the charges.

Earlier this week, defence lawyers had also argued that the criminal’s charges have been hanging over their client’s head for the last six years, with proceedings having been postponed three times this year to afford time for the prosecution to get the documents in order, some of which are classified.

According to the defence, the hundreds of documents involved correspondence between ministries, Cabinet and government agencies.

Today’s hearing was their third attempt. The first DNAA application was made in March 2022.

Lawyers Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Datuk K. Kumaraendran appeared for Najib and Mohd Irwan Serigar respectively.

In October 2018, Najib and Irwan Serigar pled not guilty to six charges of CBT amounting to RM6.6 billion in government funds, involving payments to International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) that were also said to be linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

They were charged under Section 409 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same code which provides for a maximum of 20 years in jail and whipping as well as fine upon conviction.