In police report, Rosmah claims ex-AG Thomas ‘lied’ over Sri Ram’s appointment as prosecutor in her bribery trial

KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor today via her aide lodged a police report against former attorney general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, accusing him of lying to the court when defending the validity of the appointment of Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram as lead prosecutor in her corruption trial.

In the police report sighted by Malay Mail, Rosmah urged the police to investigate Thomas for the criminal offence of perjury, claiming that he lied in his affidavits.

The affidavits that Rosmah was referring to are two separate affidavits that were sworn by Thomas and filed by the Attorney-General’s Chambers in response to her two applications.

The two applications that Rosmah had filed on May 7 — just about a month before she is due to begin defending herself in the trial are namely, her bid to nullify her bribery trial and to be acquitted, and another being her new attempt to have Sri Ram removed as the lead prosecutor of the same trial.

In the police report filed tonight at the Dang Wangi police station, Rosmah’s personal assistant Aizulhaimi Mohd Termizi said he was lodging it on her behalf as a representative.

Saying that she had read the two affidavits yesterday, Rosmah claimed that the two affidavits by Thomas were allegedly a “blatant lie, deceit, afterthought, and misleading” against her as an accused person in the ongoing corruption trial.

She claimed that the affidavits contained statements by the prosecution that were allegedly untrue, before proceeding to list some of them in the report.

“My purpose of lodging this report is for further action by the police and the court, for action to be taken against Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, because what was sworn in those affidavits are not true,” she claimed in the police report.

In Rosmah’s latest bid to remove Sri Ram as lead prosecutor in her bribery trial, she is arguing that his appointment is illegal as she contends that the appointment letter was not issued from the start of her court case but was issued later.

Rosmah’s application to have the entire corruption trial declared null and void and for her to be acquitted without defending herself in the trial also hinges on her claim that Sri Ram’s appointment as lead prosecutor was allegedly illegal.

In Thomas’ identical affidavits seeking to ask the courts to dismiss both of Rosmah’s applications, the former attorney-general asserted that he had given valid authorisation to Sri Ram to act as lead prosecutor in Rosmah’s trial.

Among other things, Thomas said he had as the public prosecutor appointed Sri Ram under Section 376(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code as a deputy public prosecutor under his “general control and direction”, adding that this provision does not require separate appointment letters when undertaking multiple prosecutions for different cases.

Saying that he had personally authorised Sri Ram to lead the prosecution in Rosmah’s trial, Thomas pointed out that it would defy belief that the prosecution team at the Attorney-General’s Chambers would have accepted and worked under Sri Ram’s leadership if he did not have valid authority.

“In other words, it defies credibility and belief that Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram could appear during the trial of this much publicized case without the sanction of the public prosecutor. As counsel he cannot hold himself out unless he was properly appointed by the public prosecutor, which he was, both as a matter of fact and law,” Thomas said in the affidavits both dated May 11.

In his affidavits, Thomas also said Rosmah’s applications were done in “bad faith”, saying that he would have immediately confirmed Sri Ram’s authority to appear and prosecute Rosmah if she had questioned his authority from the very outset of the trial.

In her police report lodged by her aide, Rosmah however contended that the remarks in Thomas’ affidavits were not true and had allegedly not been mentioned by the prosecution previously in court.

On June 3, High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan is scheduled to hear both of Rosmah’s applications to have Sri Ram removed from her trial and to have her trial declared invalid and for her to be acquitted.

Sri Ram is expected to personally attend the June 3 hearing to argue against Rosmah’s two applications.

The High Court had previously fixed June 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23 and July 12 and 15 for the hearing for the defence stage of Rosmah’s trial, with Rosmah expected to testify in her own defence.

On February 18, the High Court had ruled that the prosecution had successfully proven a prima facie case against Rosmah by producing credible evidence to prove every element of the three bribery charges which would result in a conviction if unrebutted.

The High Court had on February 18 ordered Rosmah to enter her defence to answer these charges, and Rosmah had at that time said she would defend herself by giving sworn evidence from the witness stand where she will be subjected to cross-examination.

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