The corruption trial of the former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak over charges related to a multibillion-dollar scandal at the state fund 1MDB has been postponed, in a blow to efforts to bring the disgraced politician to justice.

He had been due to go on trial on Tuesday for the first time over allegations linked to his involvement in the looting of the 1MDB fund, in which more than $4.5bn (£3.5bn) of state money was embezzled and spent lavishly in Malaysia and around the world on everything from Manhattan real estate and diamonds to Pablo Picasso paintings and Hollywood films.

Picassos, a glass piano and missing billions: scandal of 1MDB reaches court Read more

Najib, who is the first former Malaysian prime minister to be charged with crimes carried out while in office, is accused of receiving almost one-quarter of 1MDB’s funds into his personal bank accounts.

Since he lost power in May, Najib has been arrested four times and faces 42 charges of corruption, money laundering and abuse of power. He denies all the charges.

The trial, which was the source of great anticipation in Malaysia, was to be the first of a likely three 1MDB trials he will face. It will focus on three charges of money laundering, three of criminal breach of trust and one of abuse of power, relating to a sum of 42m Malaysian ringgit (£8m) which was transferred from a 1MDB subsidiary company, SRC International, into Najib’s personal bank accounts.

However, on Monday afternoon, Najib’s team of eight lawyers filed an application for the trial to be delayed, pending an appeal on a technical matter, and the court of appeal agreed unanimously to postpone. No new date for the trial has been set, but the prosecution team said it was likely to be a delay of one or two weeks.

Bridget Welsh, an associate professor of political science at John Cabot University and expert on Malaysian politics, said the “delay tactics” were part of Najib’s defence team’s strategy.

In recent months, he has embarked on a social media campaign to reposition himself as a man of the people and paint the trial as a politicised vendetta, even recording a viral video of him singing the 1970s hit Kiss and Say Goodbye, but with the lyrics altered to criticise the government and protest his innocence.

“This trial is not going to be a short process and Najib’s defence team are going to push this down the road as much as possible, and to try and build up this continued sense of victimisation and galvanise public support,” Welsh said.

When it eventually commences, the trial is likely to have ramifications beyond Malaysia. There are 1MDB investigations taking place in 12 countries, and in the US, the justice department recently charged two former Goldman Sachs bankers with conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from Malaysia’s state development fund. Goldman Sachs may also be facing a fine of $2bn for its role in 1MDB, prompting the bank to consider cutting executive bonuses.