Witness-tampering danger
Prosecution alleges Rosmah asked witness for statement in her favour
KUALA LUMPU R: T he prosecution informed the Sessions Court here yesterday that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, who was slapped with 17 money laundering charges involving RM7,097,750, had approached a witness and requested a statement in her favour from the person.
Retired Federal Court Judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, who is leading the prosecution team, raised the matter when he applied to the court to not grant bail to Rosmah on grounds that there was real danger of bias of witness tampering.
“There is more significant factor that we wish to bring forth to the court. When the prosecution recorded the statement from a witness, the accused ( Rosmah) had approached the witness to make the statement in her favour. I have a copy of the police report,” he said.
He then tendered the police report made by the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission (MACC) to Judge Azura Alwi, who heard the case.
Sri Ram said the charges facing Rosmah were non-bailable offences, but it was the court’s discretion to grant bail or not.
He said based on the principal of law, bail should not be granted if there was a real danger of witness tampering.
“However, we ask for the bail to be set at RM10 million with two conditions where the accused must surrender her two passports and not contact any of the witnesses and potential witnesses between now and until the trial is over,” he added.
Rosmah’s lawyer, Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent, requested the court to consider the bail amount proposed by the prosecution, saying that the bail was only intended to ensure the presence of the accused in court.
In determining the bail amount, he said, the defence based on the provisions in the law and referred to several cases involving “high subject matter”, but the bail amount imposed by the court was reasonable.
“Firstly, in the latest case, where Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is facing 21 charges under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the subject matter involved is RM2.6 billion and the bail that was fi xed by the court was RM3.5 million, while in the case of Datuk Jaya Kumar, involving RM16.5 million, the bail was RM600,000.
“Based on these cases and the charges (facing Rosmah), which involves RM7 million, I propose bail of RM250,000 against my client. The amount is apt and reasonable to ensure her presence in court,” he added.
Vincent said the court should also take into account the factor that his client was prepared to comply with the two conditions requested by the prosecution.
“My client brought along her two travel documents to be submitted to the court and she is prepared to promise to not go near any witness or potential witness linked to the prosecution’s case,” he said.
He said Rosmah had also given her full cooperation to the MACC during the investigation and that she was called up three times by the commission to give her statement.
“The fi rst time she was called up by MACC was last June 5, the second on Sept 26 and the last was Oct 3. She was present without fail
There is more significant factor that we wish to bring forth to the court. When the prosecution recorded the statement from a witness, the accused (Rosmah) had approached the witness to make the statement in her favour.
and gave her full cooperation to MACC, despite the short notice by the commission.
“Her travel abroad has been barred since last May and until now, no effort was made by my client to attempt to leave the country,” he said, adding that his client also had no previous record.
Lawyer Datuk K Kumaraendran, who is the lead counsel for Rosmah, said the amount proposed by the prosecution was very excessive and asked the court not to consider the allegations made by the prosecution on witness tampering in fi xing the bail amount.
Sri Ram countered that the amount suggested by Vincent was unreasonable as the court should consider Rosmah’s standing in life.
“The accused has standing character but her character goes against her. A person of her standing should not be in the dock in the fi rst place,” he said
He also said the prosecution proposed the amount of RM10 million after considering the facts of the case, including tampering of witness.
Sri Ram also argued that there was no element of tampering witnesses in cases referred by Vincent for the court to decide on a reasonable bail for his client, except in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s case.
“The sum requested by the defence is insuf f icient and ridiculously low. If the court feels this is the correct submissions used by the defence, the court may as well set bail of RM1,” he said.
Meanwhile, Vincent also told the court that a police report lodged by MACC on the wedding reception of Rosmah’s daughter in 2006 had no connection with investigation of his client’s case.
Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, lead prosecutor
He said it was the wedding reception of Rosmah’s eldest child, Azrene Soraya Abdul Aziz, but the name was not mentioned in the report.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib then told the court that the prosecution submitted the police report to show that Rosmah had tendency to disturb the witness.
Azura then allowed Rosmah bail of RM2 million in two sureties and also ordered her to surrender her two passports to the court and to not disturb the witnesses.
Earlier, Rosmah shook her head and said she claimed trial to every charge that was read out to her.
When the ninth to the 12th charge was read out, she requested to look at the charge sheets and after that, shook her head and claimed trial for all the charges.