KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) on Thursday (Dec 11) dropped its appeal against the acquittal of Rosmah Mansor – who is the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak – over 17 money laundering and tax evasion charges.
In its statement, the AGC said that the decision was reached as there was “no reasonable prospect of success” with key witnesses either deceased or untraceable, reported local news outlet the New Straits Times (NST).
“Among the factors considered was that the prosecution would be unable to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt as key witnesses have died or can no longer be traced,” the statement read.
“In such circumstances, the predicate offence against the accused also cannot be proven.”
Rosmah, 74, was charged in 2018 with 12 charges of money laundering involving RM7.09 million (US$1.73 million) and five charges of failing to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board.
On Dec 19 last year, High Court Judge K Muniandy acquitted her of all 17 charges, ruling that the prosecution had failed to present the key elements of the offence of money laundering in the charges.
The AGC said that it had initially filed the appeal on Dec 20 against the High Court’s decision. However, after reviewing the court’s written grounds of the judgement on Oct 30 this year, it decided not to proceed with the appeal.
“All key aspects of the case, including issues of fact and law, were reviewed before the decision not to proceed with the appeal was made,” said the AGC, as quoted by NST.
The AGC said that it had filed a notice of discontinuance on Dec 9, which is the court document required for it to drop the appeal.
According to a letter from the Deputy Registrar of the Court of Appeal, the case management set for Dec 22 has been vacated and the appeal is dismissed.
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