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Thursday, June 25, 2015

AG’s defence to Rosli’s civil suit hotly anticipated

Lawyers keen to see how Gani will justify the propriety and good faith of the government’s actions towards Rosli.
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KUALA LUMPUR: Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail and ten co-defendants may have been left in a quandary after an application to stay all proceedings in a civil suit brought by lawyer Rosli Dahlan against them was not heard by the Federal Court today.
Instead, the court fixed the matter for case management and set the application proper to be heard on July 27.
Sued by prominent lawyer Rosli Dahlan for a host of alleged wrongdoings which he claimed had injured his professional and personal reputation and caused him loss and damage, Gani had by a motion dated April 28 sought leave to appeal to the Federal Court.
He also applied to stay all proceedings in Rosli’s High Court civil suit pending the disposal of the leave application.
One of the immediate steps which Gani and his co-defendants are required to take in the High Court action is to file their defence to Rosli’s statement of claim.
On May 28, High Court Judge Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera ordered Gani and the other defendants to file their defence within 30 days to enable the matter to proceed expeditiously to trial.
That deadline is set to expire in two days’ time.
Having noted that no stay of proceedings has been secured, lawyers observing the case are curious as to how the defendants, and the Attorney General in particular, will choose to set up their defence.
Up to now, the Attorney General has successfully deferred the filing of the defendants’ defence by taking out an application, filed on January 13 last year, to strike out Rosli’s statement of claim on the basis that it disclosed no reasonable cause of action.
That application failed in the High Court on April 11, 2014.
The defendants’ appeal to the Court of Appeal also failed on April 1 this year, giving rise to the present motion before the apex court.
Lawyers familiar with the case speculate that the Attorney General will attempt to claim prosecutorial immunity as the bulwark of his defence.
That defence is, however, not without its difficulties.
An interesting development in this case is that the High Court decided in April last year that Gani’s claim for prosecutorial immunity does not offer him an iron-clad defence.
In dismissing the defendants’ application to strike out the statement of claim Vazeer had said that “the notion of absolute immunity for a public servant was anathema to modern day notions of accountability,” especially when allegations of mala fide and abuse of power are raised.
Lawyers observing the case note that the Attorney General abandoned the absolute immunity argument in the Court of Appeal, which they suggest would mean that he must narrate in the statement of defence facts and circumstances to justify the propriety and good faith of the defendants’ actions towards Rosli.
That, they say, would make a fascinating read.
Rosli himself is keen to get on with the suit and hopes that the Federal Court will not fall for any attempt by the defendants to delay the filing of their defence any further.
“I filed my claim on November 22, 2013 and they were directed to file their Defence on January 27 last year,” Rosli told FMT today.   “One and a half years have passed and no defence is forthcoming!”
“There is no reason why the matter should be prolonged any further.”

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