Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was today allowed an extension of bail for his new criminal case. — Picture by Azneal Ishak

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who was also the former finance minister, was today allowed an extension of bail for his new criminal case of allegedly laundering a total of RM42 million.

High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali allowed the extension of a previous RM1 million bail from two previous criminal cases for today’s new case.

Najib was charged with three counts of money laundering, with the first count involving RM27 million, the second count involving RM5 million and the third count involving RM10 million.

The charges under Section 4(1) of the Anti-Money-Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2002 (AMLATFPUAA) were initially read out to Najib at the Sessions Court before judge Azura Alwi earlier this morning.

The Section 4(1) offence is punishable by a maximum 15-year jail term and a fine of RM5 million or a minimum five times of the value of the unlawful proceeds at the time the offence was committed, depending on whichever sum is higher.

Najib previously posted a total of RM1 million bail in two instalments for his first two cases involving three counts of criminal breach of trust and one charge of power abuse in relation to RM42 million funds said to belong to SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former unit of 1MDB.

Earlier, the prosecution applied for the three criminal cases to be heard together.

Deputy public prosecutor Manoj Kurup told the court that this was due to the common set of documents and witnesses in the three related cases.

“The MACC charge is the head, the AMLA charges are the torso and the CBT charges are the tail,” he told the judge in describing how the three cases were connected.

The MACC refers to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Manoj also said the prosecution was asking for the bail of the two previous cases to be extended to today’s money-laundering case.

Najib’s defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah agreed with the prosecution’s request for joint hearing of the three cases and for the bail to be extended.

“In fact it should be tried together in the interests of justice,” he said.

The judge allowed the three cases to be heard together.

The court is expected to fix the trial dates after hearing Najib’s application for a media gag order, which is scheduled for this Friday.