KUALA LUMPUR – Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s hearing today on her bid to disqualify Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram as deputy public prosecutor from her RM7 million money laundering and tax evasion case has been postponed after one of her defence counsels tested positive for Covid-19.
Speaking to The Vibes, her lead counsel Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent said the lawyer, who attended the proceeding yesterday, was tested positive via a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
“This would make everyone present in court yesterday, including the deputy public prosecutors and also the defence counsels, as close contacts seeing it was an enclosed area.
“We have notified the court on this matter.”
As a result, he said, the Kuala Lumpur High Court vacated today’s hearing on Rosmah’s legal team’s objection against Sri Ram submitting against her application.
Yesterday, high court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan set this morning to hear submissions on whether Sri Ram should be submitting in Rosmah’s application to disqualify him.
Rosmah was also present in court yesterday.
Meanwhile, Geethan said his team is liaising with the court to set a new date, proposing for the hearing to be fixed next Monday or Tuesday.
“We don’t want to postpone anything and we have proposed for the hearing to be fixed on Monday or Tuesday,” he said.
When the hearing resumes, Zaini will be hearing three applications starting with the prosecution’s preliminary objection against the disqualification application by Rosmah, who is the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
The court will also hear Rosmah’s second application to recuse Zaini and stay the trial pending the outcome of her appeal in the Court of Appeal to disqualify the judge.
On January 27, Rosmah filed a notice of motion to disqualify Sri Ram from leading the prosecution team in her money laundering and tax evasion trial.
In her supporting affidavit, Rosmah claimed that Attorney-General Tan Sri Idrus Harun had acted beyond his jurisdiction when he appointed Sri Ram as senior deputy public prosecutor to lead the investigations into the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal and the prosecution of those involved.
According to a report by Bernama, Rosmah said after examining Sri Ram’s – who is former Federal Court judge – letter of appointment as the senior deputy public prosecutor, dated May 21, 2021, under Section 376 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, she found that the appointment did not refer to her case.
Rosmah, 70, is facing 12 money laundering charges amounting to over RM7 million and five charges of failing to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).
The offences were allegedly committed at Affin Bank Bhd, Bangunan Getah Asli branch, Jalan Ampang here between December 4, 2013 and June 8, 2017, and at the IRB at Kompleks Bangunan Kerajaan, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Halim here between May 1, 2014 and May 1, 2018. – The Vibes, February 18, 2022
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