The Kuala Lumpur High Court has rejected a bid by former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's defence team to delay his 1MDB audit report tampering trial over an affidavit filed by former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali accusing special prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram of previously trying to convince him to arrest Najib.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who had filed an application to disqualify Sri Ram from the prosecution based on the affidavit, had argued that the matter should be heard before the trial can proceed...