A Malaysian court acquitted jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak of a corruption charge on Friday but he will continue to serve a 12-year prison term from another case. High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said state prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their case that Najib tampered with an official audit report on scandal-wracked state fund 1MDB for his benefit. Najib's co-accused, former 1MDB chief Arul Kanda Kandasamy, was also acquitted. "The first accused (Arul Kanda) is discharged and acquitted from the charge. The second accused (Najib) is discharged and acquitted against the charge made against him," the judge said in court. The charge dismissed Friday, which carried up to 20 years in jail on conviction, focused on allegations that Najib used his position to order a report on the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund by the government's official audit body to be altered in February 2016. The changes were aimed at exonerating him from any criminal liability, according to the charge. He was allegedly assisted by Arul Kanda, who was president and chief executive of the fund at the time. Najib, 69yrs, was brought to court from Kajang Prison, where he is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence for abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust over the transfer of 42 million ringgit (EURO 10.1 million) from former 1MDB unit SRC International to his personal bank account. — Agencies
