A Malaysian court on Wednesday dealt a fresh blow to former leader Najib Razak’s efforts to end five-year litigation over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, ordering him to enter a plea over allegations he received more than US$500 million. bribes linked to state funds.

The decision comes a week after Najib apologized “unreservedly” for the 1MDB debacle that cost Malaysian taxpayers billions of dollars, but repeatedly denied any knowledge of the underlying rot of the fund he set up as prime minister.

Najib is currently serving a sentence for corruption charges linked to a former unit of 1MDB and faces two more criminal cases linked to 1MDB.

Najib’s legal team had sought to show there was no basis for allegations that the prosecution abused its power to take bribes worth nearly 2.3 billion ringgit (US$535 million) from the scandal-tainted fund.

However, on Wednesday, the High Court in the capital Kuala Lumpur found that the prosecution had proven sufficient grounds in its case against the jailed former prime minister and decided that he would make a defense in the next stage of the case.

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The legacy of Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal on politics and anti-corruption

The legacy of Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal on politics and anti-corruption

The verdict comes six years after he was first indicted in 2018 on four counts of using his position to accept bribes and the same amount on 21 counts of money laundering.