Rosmah under quarantine, money laundering trial vacated
KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has adjourned Rosmah Mansor’s applications to disqualify Gopal Sri Ram as a lead prosecutor and trial judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan from presiding over her money laundering and tax evasion case as she has come in close contact with a Covid-19 patient. Lawyer Azrul Zulkifli Stork…
KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has adjourned Rosmah Mansor’s applications to disqualify Gopal Sri Ram as a lead prosecutor and trial judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan from presiding over her money laundering and tax evasion case as she has come in close contact with a Covid-19 patient.
Lawyer Azrul Zulkifli Stork told Zaini that Rosmah’s home quarantine order will expire tomorrow.
A criminal proceeding cannot proceed without the presence of the accused.
Azrul also revealed that Rosmah’s lead counsel, Geethan Ram Vincent, has been confirmed positive and his home quarantine will expire on Wednesday.
The lawyer said the other counsel in Rosmah’s legal team – Mohamed Reza Abdul Rahim, P Rajivan Nambiar and Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin – had also come in contact with a person tested positive for Covid-19.
Zaini asked Azrul with whom Rosmah, Reza, Rajivan and Firoz were in close contact.
Azrul said he was not provided any information on that but asked the court for a short break to get the details.
“They should have told you,” Zaini said, but did not pursue the matter.
Azrul also said the court papers to remove Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, as the ad hoc prosecutor could not be filed earlier as the defence lawyers did not have access to Rosmah to obtain her affidavit.
“We will file it by tomorrow,” said the lawyer, who sought a postponement of the case.
Zaini fixed Feb 3 to resume the hearing with a reminder that there would be no more adjournments.
Deputy public prosecutor Poh Yin Tinn said, however, he was prepared to proceed with the application to disqualify Zaini and the stay of the trial pending an appeal in the Court of Appeal.
At the last hearing on Jan 10 , Zaini had listed the application to seek Sri Ram’s disqualification as the item on the agenda today.
If that is dismissed, he is to proceed to hear his (Zaini’s) recusal application, and if that is also disallowed, he will hear the stay application.
“It (the money laundering and tax evasion trial) will proceed should the stay be also disallowed,” he had said.
On Dec 14, Zaini had dismissed Rosmah’s application to disqualify him from hearing the trial.
Rosmah had said she would be prejudiced as Zaini is also the trial judge in her ongoing solar project corruption trial, which is at the defence stage .
An appeal is now pending before the Court of Appeal.
However, on Jan 9, Rosmah filed another application to recuse Zaini based on new developments. — Free Malaysia Today