Pm Cannot Pass The Buck Over Rosmah S Acquittal Ngos

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Following Rosmah Mansor’s acquittal over money laundering and income disclosure charges, 10 NGOs said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim must not excuse himself from any responsibility.
“As long as the public prosecutor’s office is not separated from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the buck stops at the prime minister and not the AG.
“That’s because the AG’s tenure is controlled by the prime minister,” they said in a joint statement today.
Among the NGOs which signed the statement were Project Stability and Accountability for Malaysia (Projek Sama), the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), Pergerakan Tenaga Akademik Malaysia (Gerak), and Rasuah Busters.
Rosmah MansorEarlier today, the Kuala Lumpur High Court discharged and acquitted Rosmah of 12 money laundering charges involving RM7 million and five charges of failing to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).
According to Bernama, judge K Muniandy granted an order of acquittal after allowing Rosmah's application to have all charges against her quashed.
The application argued that the charges were defective and failed to disclose the essential elements of the alleged offences.
However, AGC said it would file an appeal while Rosmah, the wife of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, called it a “birthday gift”.
Public confidence in tatters
While the NGOs welcomed the AGC’s immediate announcement to file an appeal against the acquittal, they said it was far from enough to restore public confidence.
They cited examples of how the AGC failed to deliver the necessary documents over Najib’s six criminal breach of trust (CBT) charges involving RM6.6 billion, which resulted in the former premier being granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) last month.
They also cited another case involving Najib, where he was acquitted of an abuse of power charge involving the audit of the 1MDB report.
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak“And we have the DNAA for Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for all his 47 charges after 77 days of trial, testimony by 99 prosecution witnesses and a prima facie case,” they said, referring to the Yayasan Akalbudi case.
On that note, the groups urged Anwar to announce a clear timeline to separate the public prosecutor’s office from the AG.
Until then, they urged the prime minister to make a commitment that the AGC will not file for a DNAA, withdraw its appeal, fail to file an appeal in time, or commit litigation errors which would enable politicians to escape the court process.
“If any VIP were to walk free from their charges, it must be the judges’ decision after a full trial and upon the final appeal, not the AG appointed by the prime minister.” - Mkini

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