Najib Abdul Razak has withdrawn his appeal to lift a Mareva injunction against him to prevent the dissipation of US$681 million of assets in Malaysia.

The former prime minister’s counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee told the Court of Appeal this morning that the appeal has become ‘academic’.

However, Najib’s lawyer did not explain what he meant by the matter becoming academic.

The three-person bench chaired by appellate judge Lee Swee Seng then unanimously allowed the appeal withdrawal...