PUTRAJAYA (July 31): A three-member Court of Appeal bench on Thursday allowed lawyer Rosli Dahlan to produce seven further pieces of evidence in his appeal scheduled to be heard at the appellate court over a High Court’s decision last year not granting him leave (permission) to challenge a seizure order against four of his Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB) accounts in police investigations.
Appellate judge Datuk Dr Lim Hock Leng, who read the unanimous decision, said Rosli wanted to challenge the seizure order made under Section 50 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activity 2021 (AMLATFPUA), whereby the judicial review was refused by the High Court.
Lim said prior to the filing of this judicial review, Rosli had already obtained leave in his first judicial review to challenge the travel ban as well as a freezing order made by the police to his bank accounts and is subject to a hearing of its merits which is still pending.
The judge said the evidence Rosli wanted to adduce in his failed second judicial review (regarding leave to challenge the seizure order of his ASNB accounts) pertains to several affidavits produced in the first judicial review (regarding the challenge to the travel ban and freezing of his bank accounts) where he wanted to argue that there was no determining influence for the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) to issue the order.
“The learned High Court Judge dismissed the leave application primarily on the grounds that three was no specific pleading of mala fide against the DPP. In our view, Rosli's application is generally pleaded.
“The bench agrees that at the leave stage, the court must be satisfied over the possibility of prima facie evidence available. We find that this new evidence is important if used to determine the outcome in the High court and we are allowing the application,” Lim said.
Lim sat with Datuk P Ravinthran and Datuk Azizul Azmi Adnan in the unanimous decision. Ravinthran led the panel and asked the registrar to fix a case management date for the hearing of the appeal.
The new evidence the lawyer wanted to adduce are affidavits in reply by the police, and also the Immigration Department on the travel ban and his reply following his mounted challenge in the first judicial review.
Rosli was represented by Harvinderjit Singh along with Amiratu Al Amirat and Ho Yu Fei while senior federal counsel Rahazlan Affandi Abdul Rahim appeared for the respondents (Attorney General Chambers).
The lawyer had named five policemen, including then Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain and former commercial crime director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohammed Yoosuf, along with the police, then Attorney General Datuk Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh, DPP Muhammad Zulfadli Mohd Nawawi, and the Malaysian government as respondents.
Current CJ dismissed Rosli’s second JR back then
On Aug 14, Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh who was the High Court judge then, dismissed Rosli’s challenge for leave for his judicial review to be heard on its merits over the freeze to his ASNB accounts as he ruled that the DPP had not acted mala fide (bad faith) in issuing the order.
Wan Ahmad Farid, who ascended to the Court of Appeal in November, and is now the newly appointed Chief Justice, said the court would not normally interfere with the investigation process unless mala fide is shown.
The judge said Rosli’s case is anchored solely on the allegation that the DPP’s exercise of power under Section 50 of AMLATFPUA, is based on the false information given to him by the police investigating officers.
"The DPP is alleged to have acted on false information by the police investigation team. That, without more, cannot, in any stretch of legal imagination constitute mala fide unless there is a further allegation of collusion between police and the DPP. There was none.
“Hence, this application for leave is refused. In view that this case is of public interest, I am not making any order as to costs,” Wan Ahmad Farid ruled.
Rosli had claimed that the police had acted on him based on false information, in the form of a police report lodged by AirAsia Bhd against i-Serve Sdn Bhd in respect of top-up transactions between them amounting to RM48.4 million that resulted in the freezing of Rosli and his wife’s accounts in late 2023.
Rosli had acted as counsel for i-Serve in several of its forfeiture cases in 2023.
Following the first judicial review, the accounts belonging to the lawyer and his wife were unfrozen but Rosli’s four ASNB accounts were still frozen and subject to seizure under Section 50 of AMLATFPUA on Jan 18 last year.