Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (May 25): Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and Lebanese jewellery firm Global Royalty Trading SAL are staking claim to one piece of jewellery seized along with other items during a police raid of two luxury condominium units at Pavilion Residences in Bukit Bintang in May 2018.

The piece, a white gold diamond bracelet valued at US$220,000, is part of the government forfeiture application against Obyu Holdings — the owners of the condominium units — over the luxury items seized after Barisan Nasional lost the 14th general election.

The matter came up for case management before High Court judge Justice Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin during which Rosmah's counsel Azamuddin Abdul Aziz informed the court that the former first lady was still making a claim to the said piece.

"As of today, Rosmah still makes a claim to the one item together with Global Royalty. We will receive the pictures of the said item today," Azamuddin told the court on Wednesday.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Faten Hadni Khairuddin confirmed that the pictures of the jewellery would be given to Rosmah on Wednesday.

Global Royalty's counsel Datuk David Gurupatham stated for the record that Rosmah had waived her right to inspect the piece at Bank Negara Malaysia's vault where the seized items were kept.

Global Royalty inspected the items from Oct 25 to Nov 3. He added on Wednesday that Investigating Officer Foo Wei Min had inspected the items as well and verified that the item belonged to Global Royalty.

He added that he was hopeful that the issue of this one piece could be resolved as it had cost implications for his client.

It was reported that Rosmah and her husband, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, waived their right to inspect the items last year as Rosmah needed to go to Singapore to visit her daughter, Nooryana Najwa Najib, while Najib was involved with his parliamentary duties.

The forfeiture application is against Obyu Holdings over the seized items purportedly linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd. Najib, Rosmah and Global Royalty are third parties in this application.

Among the items seized were close to 12,000 pieces of jewellery, RM114 million cash, 284 handbags, 423 watches and 234 pairs of sunglasses, which totalled RM900 million to RM1.1 billion.

In August 2021, the RM114 million cash was returned to Najib after the court dismissed the government's application to forfeit the money, a decision that the prosecution decided not to appeal.

Shafee: Najib's only remaining claim is over seven watches

Also present in court on Wednesday was Najib's counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who said that the former premier made no claim to the bracelet. Najib's only remaining claim was over seven watches but Shafee did not reveal the value of said items.

He said that he was ready to proceed with the hearing so time was not wasted and the matter could be settled. However,the prosecution said that they needed a more time to amend the notice of motion due to new developments.

"It is my instruction that the whole notice of motion needs to be amended and not done in a piecemeal fashion. Otherwise we will [make] amendments for these seven items and make further amendments for other items. We want a procedure that is orderly," said Faten, adding that prosecution had no intention to delay the case.

Justice Muhammad Jamil set June 8 for further case management.

Edited BySurin Murugiah
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