PUTRAJAYA, Aug 20 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today withdrew his appeal to recuse judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah from presiding over his ongoing 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial.

Lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed the Court of Appeal of Najib’s decision just before the application was to be heard this morning.

“We are withdrawing this appeal without prejudice to our right to take the matter up fully at the main appeal should that become necessary,” he said to the three-judge Bench chaired by Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali.

The other Court of Appeal judges were Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk Azman Abdullah.

Muhammad Shafee said if the issue of Sequerah’s recusal is taken up now, there is a possibility the defence might be “estopped” under the principle of estoppel, a legal doctrine where one party is prevented from raising the same issues that have been settled.

Kamal Bahrin Omar and Mohamad Mustafa P. Kunyalam appeared for the prosecution.

The prosecution accepted the condition of today’s withdrawal with no further objections.

Che Mohd Ruzima struck out the appeal but said that Najib has the right to raise it in future if necessary, depending on the outcome of the main 1MDB trial.

Najib is appealing against the High Court in Kuala Lumpur on August 18, 2023 that dismissed his application to recuse Sequerah from hearing his trial.

The former Pekan MP applied to remove Sequerah from the trial after the judge disclosed that he and former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan had once been partners in the same law firm.

Loo has testified in the ongoing trial as the prosecution’s 50th witness.

In dismissing Najib’s application to recuse him, Sequerah, now a Court of Appeal judge, ruled that since Loo left the legal firm in December 2008, there has been no communication either on a professional or personal basis between them.

Najib is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3 billion belonging to IMDB and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.