The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today struck out the US$731 million suit filed by former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, his stepson Reza Aziz, 1MDB and the Malaysian government.

Judicial Commissioner Rohani Ismail said in her judgment that Zaid’s suit has no reasonable course of action and that the court considers it frivolous and vexatious, and an abuse of the court process.

Rohani said that for the suit to result in a derivative action, Zaid must have had obtained permission from the court, which he did not.

"Hence, without this permission, the court considers he has no locus standi to initiate this action," she ruled.

Rohani also noted Zaid’s claim that he is taking this action for the benefit of 1MDB.

However, the court said the plaintiff (Zaid) is not an officer, member, shareholder or agent of 1MDB, and he has no authority or given the power by the (1MDB) board of directors to initiate the action to 1MDB's benefit.

“If this is a representative action on behalf of others or the Malaysian taxpayers, the plaintiff had failed to show that 1MDB monies had changed hands or were abused by Najib for his own use or for usage by others. There is nothing on this (the abuse) in the plaintiff's statement of claim,” Rohani said.

She also ruled that the statement of claim had failed to follow Order 18 of the Rules of Court 2012, in failing to plead the material facts on the claim made against all the defendants.

Rohani ordered Zaid to pay RM4,000 in costs each to Najib, Reza, 1MDB and the government.

Zaid, in an immediate response, said it is unfortunate that the court thinks he does not have the legal standing to start the suit.

Is it only Najib, or the Finance Ministry, the ones who can initiate the suit, asked the former minister.

"I am not going to appeal. This is a waste of time and money in having to pay costs. I think the time has come for us to start campaigning to change the government," said Zaid, who is now a member of the DAP.

Application on AmBank also withdrawn

Zaid’s counsel, Americk Sidhu, told reporters outside court, after meeting Rohani in chambers, that his client has also today withdrawn his application for AmBank to produce four accounts owned by Najib that are related to the 1MDB transactions.

Zaid had filed a separate application at another bench of the High Court to compel AmBank to produce the bank accounts related to the transactions.

“We have withdrawn the application, with liberty to file afresh,” Americk said.

Rohani ordered Zaid to pay RM2,000 in costs each to Najib, who stood in as an intervener in the case, and to AmBank following the withdrawal.

Najib was represented by Mohd Hafarizam Harun. Mohd Jahaberdeen Yunos appeared for Reza and Tan Hock Chuan for 1MDB, while senior federal counsel Suzana Atan and Shamsul Bolhassan appeared for the government.

Zaid filed the representative action suit on Sept 2 last year against Najib, Riza, 1MDB and the government for breach of fiduciary duty.

The suit sought for the US$731 million deposited into Najib’s bank accounts to be returned to the government, along with RM42 million received from 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Besides this, Zaid also filed a separate application for AmBank Islamic to produce the details of Najib's accounts. The parties have sought to strike out this suit.

With today's decision, the High Court has already dismissed two suits against Najib in relation to the 1MDB matter.

The court had earlier this year dismissed the suit by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad against Najib, ruling that Najib is not a public officer.

There are two existing suits against Najib in relation to 1MDB, one by Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua and the other by former senator Mohd Ezam Md Noor, which are still pending.