KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — The hearing for Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s application to disqualify Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram in her RM7 million money laundering trial at the High Court today saw her defence team objecting to the former Court of Appeal judge representing himself in the matter.
Their objection also resulted in the court vacating today’s scheduled hearing, with proceedings to resume tomorrow for parties to make their submissions.
Earlier, defence lawyer Mohamed Reza Rahim had raised objections against Sri Ram arguing in his disqualification to lead the prosecution in the case, citing a breach under Rule 5(a) of the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978.
“First and foremost, let me state to My Lord that we were never informed of these developments even as we were preparing for this matter or before the case started.
“I have been taken by completely surprise by my learned friend that he has decided to make this U-turn but, nevertheless, my objection stands that he should not argue and my objection is premised on Rule 5(a) of the legal profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rule 1978.
“It is quite clearly said that no advocate and solicitor shall accept a brief if such acceptance renders or would render it difficult for him to maintain his professional independence or is incompatible with the best interest of the administration of justice,” Mohamed Reza argued before the court.
In reply, Sri Ram said he had received explicit instructions from Attorney General (AG) Tan Sri Idrus Harun earlier today that he was to argue against his own recusal in the case.
“I have received instructions from the AG personally through (deputy public prosecutor) Ahmad Akram Gharib that I should argue this myself.
“I believe in the previous occasion, my learned friend said I should not argue but I believe I am entitled to argue,” Sri Ram said.
He also noted to the court that the etiquette rules issue raised by Mohamed Reza was also similarly raised in Rosmah’s ongoing RM1.25 billion solar project trial, adding that it was then decided that said rules was not applicable to him.
To this, Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan who is the trial judge in both cases, made an acknowledgement but said that he needed to “wear a different hat” and discard any preconceived notions.
Mohamed Reza then proposed a solution so as to not prolong the matter, before requesting the court to grant the defence team time to compile their submissions following the latest development.
After hearing from both parties, Mohamed Zaini agreed to allow for an adjournment of today’s proceedings before fixing hearing for tomorrow morning.
Rosmah is facing 12 money laundering charges involving RM7,097,750 and five counts of failing to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board.
Under the first eight charges, she is accused of being involved in money laundering by directly engaging in a transaction involving proceeds of unlawful activities amounting to RM1.1 million, which was deposited into her account.
For the ninth to the 12th charges, Rosmah is alleged to have directly engaged in 227 transactions involving proceeds of unlawful activities totalling RM6 million that was deposited into the same account.
On the 13th to 17th counts, Rosmah is accused of engaging in money laundering by failing to file a return on the sum that was deposited into her account, as required under the Income Tax Act.
