A Sad Day for Lawyer Rosli Dahlan when the Justice was blind

by Din Merican

I had a lunch appointment with my young friend, Lawyer Rosli Dahlan yesterday. There was a lot that I wanted to catch up with him. I have not seen him for a while to the point that I was beginning to believe what most people were saying that he was avoiding me. So, I was very happy when he agreed to meet up for lunch.

Then, at 12 noon, Rosli texted me to say he was in court and would try to see me after he finished. I waited until past lunch time and then finished my meal alone, but he still did not turn up. I texted him several times but he did not reply. I felt a bit annoyed and rather disturbed that my young friend had stood me up.

I called some friends and was told that Rosli was in court, not to conduct a case for his clients, but to attend to his own case. I was told that this was his RM 50 million suit against several officers of the MACC, the A-G Chambers, the Government and the media who had conspired to fix him up in 2007. I was perplexed why he did not tell me about this case as I would have attended court with him.

Back to 2007

My readers would remember that in 2007, Rosli Dahlan acted for Dato Ramli Yusuff and the Commercial Crimes Investigations Dept (CCID) when AG Gani Patail abdicated his constitutional duties by refusing to act for the CCID in the case against an underworld operator, Goh Cheng Poh @ Tengku Goh. Apparently, this criminal had explicitly named former IGP Musa Hassan in various court papers and affidavits. Eventually the criminal got scot free and six junior policemen, Rosli and Dato Ramli got charged.

The Non-Existent RM 27 Million Cop

To discredit Rosli who prepared various court papers for Dato Ramli and the CCID, Rosli was fixed up in a most dramatic fashion which befits a suspense thriller movie. For months, the MACC leaked to the press that Dato Ramli was the “RM 27 Million Cop” and that it was hidden in the account of a lawyer. Then, in the holy month of Ramadan of 2007, the MACC agents stormed Rosli’s office, humiliated and shouted at Rosli in front of all his employees, then brutally handcuffed him so tightly until his wrists swelled and split his skin that he bled. The MACC then threw Rosli into the MACC underground cell, refused him bail and deliberately held him overnight just to teach him a lesson.

In the month of Ramadan of 2007, the MACC stormed Rosli’s office, humiliated and shouted at him in front of all his employees, then brutally handcuffed him so tightly until his wrists swelled and split his skin that he bled

The next day, just one day before Aidil Fitri, the MACC paraded Rosli along the court corridors like a circus freak and charged him in a most sensational fashion to leave a permanent impression that this was the lawyer who hid RM 27 Million. That story fizzled out immediately when it was shown there never was that money and neither Rosli nor Dato Ramli was ever charged for any illegal asset.

I have been writing about this case so that the public would know of this brutal display of power. I wanted the public to be conscious that nobody is safe if all these can happen to a senior Muslim lawyer with an unblemished track record during his period of fasting. And all that happened to Rosli just because he acted for former CCID Director, Dato Ramli Yusuff who, at that time, was the target for career elimination by Musa Hassan, A-G Gani Patail and the MACC. The rest is history.

The Infamous Conspirators

Since then, the six junior Policemen, Rosli and Dato Ramli have all been acquitted. The various courts have also pronounced damning judgments against those who fixed Dato Ramli and Rosli especially former IGP Musa Hassan and DPP Kevin Morais. On the day, he was acquitted, I wrote that Rosli referred to those who did all these cruel things to him as “the Rogues in Government” and vowed to hold them accountable so that no one else would suffer the things that he had suffered.

When Rosli filed his Statement of Claim, he gave explicit description of the various parts of the conspiracy including the part involving a Bank Negara officer who had colluded with the A-G and the MACC to conduct illegal financial searches on him. Rosli only knew the secret things they did when the banks started withdrawing his banking facilities, cancelled his credit cards and refused to do business with him. To a professional and those in the business world, this can be devastating. This was a death call that can end a professional’s business and livelihood.

That was what happened to Rosli and so he sued all of them, including the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) officer who caused the illegal search. Since BNM denied being involved in the conspiracy, Rosli offered to withdraw his suit against that BNM officer if BNM would send a letter to the banks to clarify that Rosli was never under investigations by BNM. This seemed reasonable enough, but BNM refused to do that implying they had something to hide.

It was clear to me that all Rosli wanted was accountability and to get to the bottom of the conspiracy in order to put a stop to all these shenanigans by these rogues in the corridors of power. On April 15, 2008, the powerful Utusan Malaysia even admitted to their wrongdoings and published an unqualified public apology in the following words:

UTUSAN MALAYSIA APOLOGISES TO LAWYER ROSLI DAHLAN

In October 2007, while the Muslim community were preparing to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri, we had published a news article about the arrest and prosecution of lawyer Rosli Dahlan with the title “Police Lawyer failed to declare asset charged in court today”.

In that article we made several allegations which were untrue against Lawyer Rosli Dahlan as follows:

1.That he is a Singapore citizen who carries out legal practice in Malaysia, whereas he is truly and indeed a Malaysian citizen;

2.That he has breached the laws of the country by refusing to make an asset declaration, whereas he had indeed made the said declaration;

3.That he had hidden the asset of a senior police officer who was under investigation by the ACA, whereas he never did that;

4.That he is of malevolent character and had acted deceptively in his dealings to frustrate the ACA investigations, whereas he had always fully co-operated with the ACA and his actions were always within the requirements of the law.

Our said article has given a totally wrong depiction of lawyer Rosli Dahlan as a foreign lawyer who had acted in a manner contrary to the proper behaviour and ethics of an advocate and solicitor.We hereby unconditionally apologise to lawyer Rosli Dahlan for our said untruthful article. We regret our conduct and realise the damage that we have done to him.

We acknowledge that the said article was written and published in a sensational manner to generate publicity which exceeded the parameters of ethical journalism surrounding the investigation of YDH Dato’ Pahlawan Haji Ramli Haji Yusuff who at that time held the post of Director of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department of Police DiRaja Malaysia.

Utusan Malaysia now understands that lawyer Rosli Dahlan has commenced action against the Government of Malaysia, the Attorney General and the ACA specifically to set aside the notice against the said lawyer that has been issued in contravention of the provisions of the law. Lawyer Rosli Dahlan is also seeking damages for the loss and injury suffered by him.“

Rosli wants to clear his name

Some say Rosli need not file a civil suit because he had already been vindicated when he was acquitted by the criminal courts. But I can understand why he needed to pursue this difficult legal action against these very powerful institutions– he wanted to clear his name and to hold those whom he regards as rogues in these institutions fully accountable. After all what choice did Rosli have? A-G Gani Patail is already bent on going after him as evident from the appeal filed against his acquittal.

Loss of Legitimate Business

This incident had destroyed his good name and career. From friends in the circle, I hear that he had lost his GLCs clientele. Only last month, Minister Nazri Aziz instructed MAS to sack Rosli and his firm and to pass the Tajudin Ramli series of cases to an UMNO law firm. Private sector clients are afraid to engage him as they are afraid that their business would suffer. What choice did he have?

So, Rosli played according to the rule and sued those whom he considered to be rogues in these institutions. Instead of having the courage to face a trial, using their powers in these institutions, they avoid going to trial and attempt to scuttle it. Thus, BNM sought to strike out Rosli’s suit so that he could not tell the full story of the dirty things they did to him.

What happened to The Judge?

As an observer of justice, all these are very clear to me. Thus, I was perplexed when I discovered late last evening that the Honorable Justice Dato’ John Louis O’Hara had allowed BNM to strike out Rosli’s suit. I am not sure why the good Judge did that. The story and the conspiracy are plain and clear, so, how come the learned Judge was not able to see that?

I am told that a striking out is a very severe summary process and is rarely allowed especially when the facts are so contentious. So why did this happen?It became patently clear to me that Rosli is facing multiple attacks from those whom he called the rogues in the MACC, the A-G Chambers, BNM and the mainstream media to frustrate him and financially ruin him by making all kinds of technical objections so that Rosli’s case will never see the light of day in court. Is that how Rosli’s case against those who abused him will finish?

It seems strange to me that when Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim raised various breaches by the prosecution in his Sodomy II trial, the Court of Appeal rebuked that as a tactical ploy to scuttle the trial. This was what the Court of Appeal said:

“It seems that the appellant here is trying his level best to scuttle his sodomy trial for reasons best known to him, much to the chagrin of the prosecution and the exasperation of the members of the public at large.”

Yet, here it is BNM doing to Rosli exactly what the Court of Appeal had said should not be done.

After many calls, I finally managed to speak to Rosli last night. I was surprised when told that he had gone to bed at 10pm. That was very unusual of him. I wasn’t sure if he was again avoiding me. He sounded very reluctant especially when answering my questions on some of the facts that I had already knew in order to write this piece.

I knew something was coming when he said that he appreciated all that I had done to highlight his case. Then he dropped the bomb. He said that he had been advised by his close friends including a former senior DPP that all these stories on him have gained him nothing but only made life more difficult for his career and have turned many parties against him. He politely asked that I should stop.

There were many things I wanted to answer to Rosli, but I kept my counsel. I could feel he must be tired, he must be emotionally and financially drained having fought all these legal battles alone. He must be feeling down seeing his career in shambles and there seem to be no end to the things they keep doing to him.

I wanted to tell him not to listen to his former senior DPP friend who may not be his friend after all. All the frightening things that happened to Rosli were real. These were not figments of imagination. These were not fiction. These were devastating and the effects are still felt. But he must not be disheartened and demoralised.

Speak Up against rampant abuses of the Justice System

I wanted to tell Rosli that I chose to write about him because what happened to him could happen to any one of us. It is no longer about him but about the abuses in the system when innocent people are victimized. I wanted to tell him that we cannot keep quiet if we want such rampant abuses to stop.

I am sure Rosli will understand why I have to expose this. I am sure he will snap out of this shortly and will agree with my actions as we share the ideals of seeing justice and fairness. For now, it is indeed a sad day for Rosli when the Justice was blind.