Ramli Yusuf's statement on 'Copgate' affair allowed

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today dismissed attorney general Abdul Gani Patail's application to expunge the witness statement of former Commercial Crime Investigation Department director, Ramli Yusuf on the 'Copgate' affair.
 
Justice Su Geok Yiam dismissed the application made by senior lawyer Cecil Abraham who is representing Gani and the MACC, in lawyer Rosli Dahlan's RM50 million suit against MACC and its senior officers.
 
With this, Ramli is expected to testify at the hearing this afternoon.
 
Ramli was implicated as  the ‘RM27 million cop’ where he was charged by the MACC for not declaring his assets.
 
Rosli (photo), who helped Ramli and six of his police officers in drafting their affidavits after the arrest of alleged Ah Long kingpin Goh Cheng Poh in a clampdown on illegal money lenders syndicate in 2007, is suing the MACC for unlawful detention and arrest.
 
The lawyer had helped Ramli and the police officers in drafting their affidavits following Goh's habeas corpus application.

Normally this is done by the Attorney General Chambers but it declined, resulting in Ramli and former deputy home minister Johari Baharom to engage Rosli's services.
 
It was previously reported that former MACC Corruption Prevention and Consultative panel member, Robert Phang, had testified that Gani had barred the MACC from stopping its prosecution against lawyer Rosli following the `Copgate affair’.
 
Rosli had also named Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia in the suit. However, before the start of the trial, Utusan apologised to Rosli in open court for its defamatory report, resulting in the parties settling on undisclosed terms.




Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/299801

Epic battle looms in Rosli Dahlan’s MACC case

KUALA LUMPUR: The on-going legal action pitting practising lawyer Rosli Dahlan against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) continues in the Kuala Lumpur High Court today with senior partner of the law firm of Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill, Lambert Rasa-Ratnam testifying on Rosli’s behalf.

Lambert’s testimony, especially under cross-examination by MACC’s lead counsel Cecil Abraham, is something that many in the legal circles have been hotly anticipating recently.

Lambert is known to be the lawyer who advised the Bar Council in respect of a complaint preferred against Abraham by lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu.

According to Americk, Abraham had purportedly admitted to having drafted the late private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s second statutory declaration in which Bala had, under circumstances which to date have remained unexplained, recanted allegations made by him in a statutory declaration affirmed just one day earlier in connection with the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder.

Interested observers have said that they are looking to see whether Abraham will ‘exact his pound of flesh’ and how.

Thus far, the court has heard the evidence of Rosli, former MACC adviser Robert Phang and former deputy public prosecutor Shamsul Sulaiman about how a criminal case taken out by the MACC against Rosli was allegedly a frame-up.

Rosli’s evidence was that MACC had deliberately arrested him in the most brutal and humiliating way at his office, detained him for one night and chargIng him in court just one day before Hari Raya. He claims that the entire episode was intended to destroy his reputation.

MA‎CC, for their part, have denied the allegations and have said that Rosli had been violent and abusive, allegations which Rosli claims have been fabricated.

The case is being heard before Justice Su Geok Yiam.

Other lawyers from the firm expected to testify on Rosli’s behalf include Ng Leong Huat and Kumar Kanagasingam.

Source : http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/05/18/epic-battle-looms-in-rosli-dahlans-macc-case/

'AG Gani Patail interfered in MACC work'

Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail barred the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) from stopping its prosecution against lawyer Rosli Dahlan in the ‘Copgate affair’.

This was revealed in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today by former MACC Corruption Prevention and Consultative panel member Robert Phang, who said this was related to him by MACC Chief Commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed.

Phang said Abu Kassim told him this during his tenure as a Corruption Prevention and Consultative panel member. He was on the panel from Feb 24, 2009, till Jan 27, 2011.

The witness was testifying in the RM50 million suit filed by Rosli against MACC for assault and wrongful detention.

Phang said Rosli had sent him a letter dated Nov 11, 2010, concerning a charge brought against him by the MACC in the sessions court in Kuala Lumpur in 2007.

“I raised this with Abu Kassim (left), who informed me that the MACC had no case against Rosli in the above prosecution, but he was prevented by the public prosecutor, who is Attorney-General Gani, from discontinuing with the prosecution.

“This is despite (MACC) being aware that the case would result in an acquittal.

“I believe there has been abuse of power, selective prosecution, abuse of prosecutorial discretion, malicious prosecution and prosecutorial misconduct by Gani in the handling of the case against Rosli,” Phang said in reply to questions by Rosli's counsel Chethan Jethwani.

Witness: MACC admitted there was no case against Rosli

KUALA LUMPUR: A prominent businessman told the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday that the criminal case against lawyer Rosli Dahlan proceeded at the insistence of Attorney-General Gani Patail despite the fact that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) had concluded that there was no case to pursue against him.

Robert Phang Miow Sin, chairman of P&I Properties Sdn Bhd, was testifying in the on-going trial in which Rosli is suing the MACC, its officers and the Government of Malaysia for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and a conspiracy to injure his reputation.

The case is being heard before Justice Su Geok Yam.

Yesterday, FMT reported Rosli’s own testimony to the effect that he had been collateral damage in the effort to eliminate former Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) director Ramli Yussoff, who was his client and friend.

Phang testified that he had served as a member of the Corruption Prevention and Consultative Panel of the MACC between February 2009 and January 2011.

He had in that capacity received from Rosli a letter containing representations as to why criminal charges preferred against him ought to be withdrawn.

Phang said that he raised the matter with Abu Kassim Mohamed, the current MACC Chief Commissioner, at one of the Panel meetings.

“[Abu Kassim] said to the meeting that as far as MACC was concerned, they had concluded that there was no case against Rosli,” Phang’s Witness Statement read.

“I questioned him as to why the MACC was still proceeding with the matter.”

His response was that the Attorney-General was insisting on proceeding, Phang statement went on.

“I was very surprised at the answer,” Phang’s testimony read. “I was actually so taken aback by his answer that I instinctively asked him how he could maintain that the MACC was independent if this [was] how they were acting.”

Phang said that over lunch that day, he queried Abu Kassim again but received the same response.

Under cross-examination by MACC’s counsel Cecil Abraham, Phang maintained that the matter was discussed at the meeting despite the fact that it may not have been properly recorded in the minutes of meetings.

“To the best of my knowledge, it was discussed,” he said.

Denying emphatically suggestions by Abraham that he had been asked to resign by the panel over an allegation of bribery of a senior government official, Phang said, “I volunteered to resign as a panel member because I strongly believe in quitting to preserve integrity.”

“Abu Kassim asked me to stay and let the investigation proceed but I refused to do so,” he added.
He testified that he was cleared by MACC of the allegations some time in 2012.



Source : http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/04/10/witness-macc-admitted-there-was-no-case-against-rosli/

Press Invitation

To All Duty Editors:-

 

Please take note, today there will be a very controversial and explosive session, happening in Kuala Lumpur High Court Civil Suit No: S-21-249-2009 – Rosli bin Dahlan….. (Plantiff) vs Utusan (Melayu) Malaysia Bhd& 16 Ors……Defendants.

 

More so in the afternoon session.  Key Witness will be Tan Sri Datuk Robert Phang Miow Sin, Justice of the Peace.

 

Don’t Miss This.

Utusan apologises to Rosli regarding 'Copgate

After eight years', Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia today apologised in open court for defaming lawyer Rosli Dahlan over what is now known as the 'Copgate’ affair.

However, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission who are named as defendants in the RM50 million suit, along with the government have refused to apologise and have opted for the matter to go to trial. They are also accused of assault and wrongful detention.

Utusan’s open apology was read out by its legal advisor Shirad Anuar.

With this, Rosli's suit against Utusan is settled on undisclosed terms. The apology read today is besides the apology printed by the Malay daily on April 15, 2008 following Rosli's arrest by the MACC's predecessor the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) at his office a year earlier.

In their apology before Justice Su Geok Yiam, Utusanadmitted its news report which said that Rosli (left) had hidden the assets of a senior police officer (former Commercial Crimes Department director, Ramli Yusuf) and that he had not cooperated with the MACC in their investigations, was not true.

“Our said article has given a totally wrong depiction of Rosli as a lawyer who had acted in a manner contrary to the proper behaviour and ethics of an advocate and solicitor.