The suit seeking to compel the prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor to return a 22-carat pink diamond necklace set allegedly bought with siphoned 1MDB funds cotinued at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today, with the focus on fugitive Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low.
Former Federal Court judge and now senior lawyer Gopal Sri Ram told the court that he wanted to cross-examine the Penang born businessperson on whether he truly appointed a Francis Ng Aik Guan to be his lawyer.
This follows questions arising from Jho Low's affidavit, in which the businessperson affirmed in Hong Kong that he had appointed Ng.
Sri Ram pointed out that the affidavit and also the notice of appearance, however, did not have Jho Low's Malaysian identity card number nor his Hong Kong address.
“A person who affirms an affidavit must be prepared to be cross-examined in court. The plaintiff is entitled to question him as in the affidavit which he affirmed, he cites his Penang address but the affidavit is affirmed in Hong Kong.
“We want to know if he (Jho Low) is the man appointing Ng because we do not know whether there is a shadowy person behind the appointment,” he said.
Sri Ram is appearing for former Umno Batu Kawan vice-chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan in his US$27.3 million lawsuit against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's wife Rosmah Mansor, Jho Low and 1MDB over the pink jewellery.
In his lawsuit, Khairuddin alleged that between June 2013 and March 2014, Low had acted through his agent, Eric Tan, to purchase jewellery from Lorraine Schwartz in New York for the sum of US$27.3 million, which Khairuddin said were from misappropriated 1MDB funds.
Khairuddin claimed that the necklace was given to Rosmah sometime in March 2014 and that it should be returned to 1MDB, along with the return of the money Low allegedly misappropriated from the sovereign wealth fund.
He added that since Rosmah gave no consideration to the said necklace, she has no title in law or equity to it, meaning that 1MDB was entitled to have it back.
The pink diamond necklace set was mentioned in the United States Department of Justice's (DoJ) 2015 civil forfeiture suit related to 1MDB.
The documents alleged that Jho Low had procured the necklace for the wife of Malaysian Official 1 (MO1). Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan has since confirmed that 'MO1' is Najib.
Khairuddin is also challenging Ng's appointment as Jho Low's lawyer after failing to serve a copy of his suit at his (Jho Low's) residence four times.
Rosmah and 1MDB have applied to strike out the suit.
[More to follow]
- Mkini
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