Gov't appeals against order for Rosmah to inspect seized jewellery

The government has filed an appeal against the green light from the High Court in Kuala Lumpur for Rosmah Mansor to inspect the amount of jewellery seized from her, which is linked to a lawsuit against the government and Rosmah by a Lebanese jeweller.

In response, Rosmah, who is the wife of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, will file an application to stay the entire legal action against her and the government pending the outcome of her appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Counsel Reza Rahim, who represented Rosmah, said that they were served with a copy of the Notice of Appeal this morning.

“The government is appealing the entire order that allowed an expert to be brought in to inspect the jewellery.

“We informed the court that in light of the appeal, we as defendant (Rosmah) would have a problem in trying to cross-examine the plaintiff (Global Royalty Trading SAL).

“We told the court that we would file an application to stay (the entire suit) on behalf of Rosmah (photo) until the outcome of the appeal,” Reza said.

He added that they would be filing the stay application on Monday next week, and that the stay bid has been fixed for hearing before the High Court in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 16.

Reza was speaking to reporters after he attended the case management on the matter in the chambers of High Court judge Wong Chee Lin.

Rosmah’s other counsel, Rajivan Nambiar, added that the government filed the appeal on Wednesday this week.

Federal counsel Ashraf Hamid appeared for the government, which is the co-defendant in the legal action.

On Sept 17, the High Court allowed Rosmah’s application for a jewellery expert from India to come and inspect the amount of jewellery being sought by Global Royalty Trading.

This is subject to the consent of the central bank, which is keeping the jewellery forfeited during the police investigation into the 1MDB case.

Meanwhile, David Gurupatham, the counsel for plaintiff Global Royalty Trading, said that as far as they were concerned, they are ready to proceed with the legal action, which had been earlier fixed for hearing from Oct 21 to 24.

“The plaintiff will deal with that (the stay) application when it comes. At the moment, we agree to proceed to trial from Oct 21 to 24,” he said.

Gurupatham (photo) said that this was especially so in light of his client having already paid the security cost of RM75,000 as directed by the court in relation to the suit.

“The security cost was paid on Oct 9,” Gurupatham said when met after the case management.

Also on Sept 17, the High Court ordered Global Royalty Trading to pay RM75,000 in security costs instead of the sum of RM500,000 applied by Rosmah.

Global Royalty Trading sued Rosmah and the government on June 26 last year, seeking the return of 44 pieces of jewellery sent to her for selection or to pay the price of all the items, amounting to US$14.79 million or almost RM60 million.

The Lebanese jeweller claimed that on Feb 10, 2018, it sent 44 pieces of jewellery, including diamond necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets and tiaras, each worth between US$124,000 (RM519,183) and US$925,000 (RM3.8 million) to the defendant through a courier via its two agents.

The company claimed that Rosmah confirmed and accepted the terms and conditions in Memorandum No 926 relating to the jewellery.

Global Royalty Trading is seeking a court declaration that the firm owns the 44 pieces of jewellery, apart from an order that ownership of the jewellery was not transferred to the former prime minister's wife.

It is also seeking an order for Rosmah to provide a list of the jewellery seized, for the jewellery to be returned, or alternatively for her to pay the price of the jewellery, at US$14.79 million (RM59.83 million). - Mkini