KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — The High Court has fixed August 4 to hear Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s application for judicial review of Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram’s appointment as senior deputy public prosecutor in her corruption trial involving a RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project.
High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid fixed the date after the court was earlier informed by Senior Federal Counsel Shamsul Bolhassan that the Attorney General’s Chambers has filed preliminary objections to Rosmah’s application.
The preliminary objections were filed on July 5 against Rosmah’s application that was filed on June 24, naming the attorney general/public prosecutor, the government and Sri Ram as respondents.
The court was also informed that Sri Ram has filed an affidavit to dismiss Rosmah’s leave application as another High Court judge ruled that he was competent to prosecute Rosmah.
Ahmad Kamal then allowed Sri Ram to come in as a putative respondent since Rosmah’s current application for judicial review was still at the leave stage.
In September last year, High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said Sri Ram’s appointment under the Criminal Procedure Code by the attorney general then, Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, in August 2018 was valid.
In May, Rosmah failed in a final bid to nullify her corruption trial over the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project in Sarawak and to remove Sri Ram as the lead prosecutor in the case after the Federal Court affirmed the High Court’s September ruling.
Ahmad Kamal also ordered for parties to file their respective submissions by July 28, with hearings to proceed physically in an open court on August 4.
Rosmah was represented by lawyers Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader and Datuk Jagjit Singh.
In the AGC’s preliminary objection filed, Shamsul said Rosmah’s application was an abuse of the process as what she sought constituted an interference with the due administration of criminal justice since trial has concluded.
“It is our humble submission that the application herein should be dismissed as the application herein is frivolous, vexatious and does not justify further argument on a substantive stage,” Shamsul said.
In her application, Rosmah is seeking a declaration that the appointment of Sri Ram as senior deputy public prosecutor through three letters of appointment (fiat) dated July 8, 2020 and May 11 and May 21, 2021, respectively, is unlawful.
She is seeking a declaration that the first version of the fiat signed by AG Tan Sri Idrus Harun on July 8, 2020, which should have been signed by the previous attorney-general, Thomas, on or before November 15, 2018, the date of prosecution against the applicant, is invalid.
The applicant is seeking a declaration that the second version of the fiat dated May 11 last year is non-existent as Thomas, in his book My Story: Justice in the Wilderness published last year, stated that Sri Ram’s appointment was related to 1MDB and not the solar hybrid project case.
She is also seeking a declaration that the appointment of Sri Ram through the third version of the fiat is flawed. Rosmah is additionally seeking a declaration to nullify the entire proceeding of the trial from 2018.
