Rosmah requested postponement of the proceedings of the Lebanese jewelry company’s lawsuit

KUALA LUMPUR: Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor filed an application to postpone the proceedings of the suit filed by the Lebanon-based jewelery company Global Royalty Trading SAL against her regarding the loss of more than 40 pieces of jewellery.

Lawyer Rajivan Nambiar, representing Rosmah as the defendant, said the application filed on June 7 was to await his client’s appeal regarding the High Court decision, which rejected Rosmah’s application to include the government and the police as a third party in the suit case decided by the Court of Appeal.

“At the proceedings before Senior Assistant Registrar Norhaina Zulkifli today, the court fixed August 16 for the online hearing of the application before Judge Ong Chee Kwan,” said the lawyer when contacted today.

Global Royalty, as the plaintiff, filed a suit on May 29 last year, claiming that Rosmah had lied by stating that 44 pieces of jewelry, including diamond necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets, and tiaras, that an agent of the company handed over to her had been confiscated by the Malaysian authorities for offenses under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorist Financing, and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.

According to the Beirut-based company, this is because only one of the 44 pieces of jewelry is in the custody and control of the police, and the remaining 43 pieces of jewelry belonging to the plaintiff are not in the custody of the authorities.

Global Royalty also claimed that the wife of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak shifted the burden to the Malaysian government when the jewelry was actually missing.

The company initially sued Rosmah on June 26, 2018 and demanded that she return the 44 units of jewelry sent to her to choose from or pay the price for all the jewelry in question, amounting to US$14.79 million.

However, the suit was withdrawn in 2019.