By Tarani Palani | The Edge Malaysia
The prosecution will not be continuing with its appeal against Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s full acquittal in her money-laundering and tax evasion case.
The notice of discontinuation dated Dec 9 lacked details, only stating that the prosecution does not wish pursue the appeal any longer.
The notice, sighted by The Edge, was signed by deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Seri Saiful Edris Zainuddin.
This is with regards to then High Court judge K Muniandy’s decision last December that allowed Rosmah’s application to strike out the charges, and used its inherent jurisdiction to grant her a full acquittal.
In a brief statement, Rosmah’s lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad said that they were relieved this chapter was finally closed.
“[Rosmah] has maintained her innocence throughout. We are relieved that she has been fully vindicated. This entire process has been a profound ordeal for her, and we are pleased to see justice ultimately prevail and that this chapter is conclusively closed,” he said.
The High Court, in acquitting Rosmah previously, ruled that the charges were bad in law. In relation to the money-laundering charges, Muniandy said they did not specify the key elements of a money-laundering offence.
In gist, Muniandy said a money-laundering offence needs to identify proceeds of an unlawful activity and transactions which show “placement, layering and integration”.
As for the tax evasion charges, the court said there was an overlap with the first 12 charges which accounts for multiplicity.
Muniandy also said that failure to file a tax return is only a punishable offence once all avenues under the Income Tax Act 1967 have been exhausted. This was not done in Rosmah’s case, he said.
He further noted the various postponements in the case since 2019.
It has to be noted that the trial for this case has already begun with two witnesses taking the stand.
Rosmah now remains acquitted in this trial. She still has a pending appeal involving graft pertaining to the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.
She is appealing her guilty conviction, 10 years’ imprisonment and fine of a whopping RM970 million.
Besides this singular criminal case, Rosmah, wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, also has some on-going civil cases.
This latest court outcome joins a series of high-profile criminal trials that ended because the prosecution decided not to appeal an acquittal, failed to do so, or decided not to pursue the case.
Just December last year, the prosecution withdrew its appeal against the acquittal of Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a case where he faced 40 graft charges related to the foreign visa system contract. Over a year before that, in September 2023, the prosecution withdrew all 47 charges of criminal breach of trust, graft, and money laundering that the deputy prime minister faced in the Yayasan Akalbudi case, leading to his discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
In November 2024, Najib and former Treasury sec-gen Tan Sri Irwan Serigar were also granted a DNAA after the prosecution failed to produce critical documents to the defence, as legally required. They were facing criminal breach of trust charges for channeling government funds for development projects to pay 1MDB debt.
In September 2023, the prosecution also missed the deadline to appeal against the acquittal of Najib and former 1MDB president Arul Kanda Kandasamy in the 1MDB audit report tampering case.
