The government and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today expressed their regret to lawyer Rosli Dahlan at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in what is known as the 'Copgate' affair.
The settlement for Rosli's suit was recorded by Justice Su Geok Yiam.
Rosli's predicament came eight years ago when he represented former Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Ramli Yusof and former deputy home minister Johari Baharom in the drafting of affidavits to challenge the habeas corpus application made by a crime kingpin Goh Cheng Poh @ Tengku Goh, who was caught by Ramli and his officers.
He filed the RM50 million suit in 2009 against MACC, its chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamad, and 11 others including officers for unlawful arrest and detention.
It was reported earlier that Rosli was charged at the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur with failure to abide by the MACC notice to declare his assets. The charge came a day before Muslims celebrated the Hari Raya festival in 2007.
However, Rosli was acquitted of the charge and the prosecution's appeal was withdrawn.
He also filed a separate suit against then attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail and former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan for malicious prosecution.
The terms of today's settlement were not disclosed but a five-page statement was read in open court by MACC's senior assistant commissioner Saiful Ezra, who was the investigating officer in the case.
Saiful said following the death of DPP Kevin Morais, who was murdered, and Gani's retirement, the commission felt that there was no purpose in continuing with the case.
“The MACC and all the defendants in this case have reached a settlement with Rosli where he will withdraw all suits.
"With this we regret what had happened to Rosli and family," said Saiful.
The statement of regret details Rosli's arrest, the prosecution against him and the apologies he received from The Star and Utusan Malaysia. It also highlighted the lawyer winning a defamation suit against the MACC and the New Straits Times where he was awarded a total of RM300,000 in damages.
With this, Justice Su declared that Rosli's suit has been struck off with no liberty to file afresh.
Fully vindicated
Met after the proceeding, Rosli said he has mixed feelings with the settlement but felt fully vindicated.
“I understand the difficulty in the parties making this apology for what the government has done. This reflects well on the MACC for doing the right thing.
“This is a good beginning and will allow the country to move forward. I would like to commend the MACC and Abu Kassim and the attorney general (Mohamed Apandi Ali) for allowing this to happen. I would like to commend the MACC for having the courage and integrity to correct matters and making the statement in court,” he said.
The case had seen five witnesses including Ramli and Rosli's wife Misni Aryani testifying.
Rosli said he would withdraw the other RM48 million suit against the then AG Abdul Gani and Musa.
Alleged conspiracy
Ramli in his testimony testified how Musa and Abdul Gani along with the Anti Corruption Agency the predecessor of the MACC, allegedly conspired to fix him.
The former top cop, who was the number three man in the police force then, told the court that he would have been the inspector-general of police, if they had not conspired against him.
Ramli had in his evidence told the court how his conflict began with Musa starting with the “black eye “ incident, and that with Gani he had recommended to the then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that action could be taken against Malaysia Airlines chairperson Tajudin Ramli.
The rift with Musa when he was IGP widened further when the Home Ministry received an anonymous letter alleging Goh had direct links with Musa and that Musa had underworld ties, Ramli said.
This led to Goh's arrest and being placed under restricted residence, but it led to Goh applying for habeas corpus and Gani requiring that confidential Cicero files held by the police to be submitted to the MACC.
While Goh was applying for habeas corpus, the AG Chambers do not want to draw up affidavits of Ramli and his men who did the arrest to contest the application, and this led to Rosli being roped in to help to draft the affidavits along with the deputy minister.
Ramli's RM128.5 million suit against Gani, Musa, the MACC and government for malicious prosecution is still ongoing. -Mkini
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