The prosecution revealed a new appointment letter dated this year purporting to show Gopal Sri Ram has authority to prosecute in Rosmah Mansor’s corruption case linked to the RM1.25 billion Sarawak solar hybrid project.
During open-court proceedings today, former federal court judge Sri Ram informed the Kuala Lumpur High Court of this.
The revelation was made during today’s hearing of a preliminary objection by Rosmah’s legal team against Sri Ram being allowed to submit in a related application.
Today was initially set for hearing of the related application, namely Rosmah’s bid to nullify her corruption trial linked to the solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.
The crux of Rosmah’s application to nullify her corruption trial hinged on the validity of former federal court judge Sri Ram’s letter of appointment for him to prosecute her case.
Sri Ram is the lead prosecutor in the corruption trial against Rosmah, who on Feb 18 was ordered by the High Court to enter her defence in the corruption case.
During proceedings today, Sri Ram told the court that the new appointment letter, dated May 21 this year, was signed by current Attorney-General Idrus Harun.
He explained that the letter, taking effect from Aug 30, 2018, grants him the authority to conduct prosecution of Rosmah’s solar corruption case.
Rosmah’s legal team today raised a preliminary objection against Sri Ram taking part in the hearing of the application to challenge the legality of the trial, on the basis that the former federal court judge had a vested interest in the matter among others.
However, Zaini dismissed the preliminary objection and allowed Sri Ram to be part of the application hearing today.
Later, during the hearing of Rosmah’s trial-nullification bid, Jagjit raised the issue of the new appointment letter, questioning why it was only raised today and why the defence team was not informed earlier.
The lawyer submitted that the court must not accept the new letter of appointment as Idrus was not yet an attorney-general when Rosmah’s court case began in late 2018.
During that time when Pakatan Harapan was in power, Tommy Thomas was attorney-general while Idrus was still a Federal Court judge.
However, following the Sheraton Move early last year and the emergence of the current Perikatan Nasional administration, Thomas stepped down and Idrus was appointed as the new attorney-general.
Jagjit today submitted that such an appointment cannot take effect retrospectively, explaining among others that Idrus was not even attorney-general when Rosmah’s court case began in late 2018.
The counsel also claimed that earlier letters of appointment, such as the one also signed by Idrus dated July 8 last year, are not valid as it merely gave Sri Ram prosecutorial power in 1MDB cases against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Jagjit contended that the July 8 appointment letter made no specific mention about Rosmah’s solar corruption case.
Rosmah is Najib’s wife.
Hearing of her application to nullify her solar graft trial will resume before Zaini on Thursday this week, with her legal team expected to wrap up their submission before the prosecution gets to counter-submit to maintain the case against her. - Mkini
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