{"id":11701,"date":"2021-09-24T16:48:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T08:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=11701"},"modified":"2021-09-24T16:48:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T08:48:21","slug":"rosmah-fails-to-disqualify-sri-ram-and-nullify-rm1-25-billion-graft-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=11701","title":{"rendered":"Rosmah fails to disqualify Sri Ram and nullify RM1.25 billion graft trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kuala Lumpur, Sept 24 — The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today dismissed Rosmah Mansor\u2019s application to nullify her RM1.25 billion corruption trial over the Sarawak schools solar hybrid project and to disqualify Gopal Sri Ram as lead prosecutor in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan in his brief decision said the authorization given by then attorney-general (AG), Tommy Thomas, to Sri Ram to conduct the criminal prosecution in Rosmah\u2019s case was without doubt validly done under Section 376 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) in his capacity as public prosecutor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThomas clearly stated that he had, after appointing Sri Ram to lead the prosecution in the 1MDB cases, subsequently authorized Sri Ram to conduct the prosecution for the criminal cases against the applicant (Rosmah).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is public knowledge that Sri Ram had been conducting the prosecution against the applicant from the onset at the High Court, and he did so with a team of prosecutors from the Attorney-General\u2019s Chambers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt defies belief that Sri Ram could do so without the knowledge and sanction of Thomas being the then AG and also the current AG,\u201d said Zaini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge added that he was resolute this authorization need not be evidenced in writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI, therefore, see no necessity to address the validity of the first written fiat (appointment letter) or Sri Ram\u2019s appointment under it which are the essence of the applicant\u2019s application as I have found his (Sri Ram) appointment by Thomas under Section 376 (3) of the CPC to be valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"nullify\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my view, there is no necessity for the first nor the second written fiat to be issued. It follows that the applicant\u2019s applications for a declaration on, among others, the validity of the first written fiat, Sri Ram\u2019s appointment as a senior deputy public prosecutor (DPP), and for the trial to be declared a nullity must fail,\u201d said the judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zaini also said he took cognizance of the fact that the respondent (the prosecution) had issued the second written fiat out of an abundance of caution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs for the second written fiat which was issued out of abundant caution by the public prosecutor, it struck me that it was issued to allay the applicant\u2019s complaint of Sri Ram\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am inclined to agree with the prosecution\u2019s proposition that the public prosecutor, being an authority empowered to appoint a person to exercise a function, as spelt out under Section 50 of the Consolidated Interpretation Act 1948 and 1967, is entitled to make Sri Ram\u2019s appointment with retrospective effect as set out under Section 50 (b) of this act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe applicant\u2019s applications are therefore dismissed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosmah, the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, filed two applications at the High Court on May 6 this year seeking to nullify her entire trial, in her bid to be acquitted of all three charges, as well as to remove Sri Ram as lead prosecutor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosmah filed the applications after the Court of Appeal on April 8 allowed her appeal to get a copy of Sri Ram\u2019s appointment letter after the prosecution agreed to provide it to the defense team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She brought the matter up for appeal after the High Court dismissed her application over Sri Ram\u2019s appointment letter on Aug 19 last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Zaini also dismissed Rosmah\u2019s application for a stay of proceedings pending an appeal against today\u2019s decision to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that nullity is not considered a special circumstance to stay a trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA stay of criminal proceedings will only be granted in the rarest of cases. The fact that the proceedings may be rendered nullity is not a special circumstance. On that basis, I\u2019m dismissing this application for a stay,\u201d the judge added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During today\u2019s proceeding, Rosmah was represented by Jagjit Singh, Akberdin Abdul Kader, and Azrul Zulkifli Stork while DPPs Ahmad Akram Gharib and Mohamad Mustafa P Kunyalam appeared for the prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosmah is scheduled to take the stand when the defense case begins on Oct 5 after Zaini ordered her to enter her defense on all three corruption charges related to the solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak, on Feb 18, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NMT<\/a> as reported by Bernama<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kuala Lumpur, Sept 24 — The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today dismissed Rosmah Mansor\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1.jpg",1068,711,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1-768x511.jpg",640,426,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1.jpg",1068,711,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1.jpg",1068,711,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1.jpg",1068,711,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1.jpg",1024,682,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rosmah-mansor-bernama-240921-1068x711-1.jpg",714,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Crime<\/a> Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11703,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11701\/revisions\/11703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}