Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor (front) seen at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex on Monday, June 24, 2024. (Photo by Zahid Izzani/The Edge)

KUALA LUMPUR (June 24): Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor has applied to stay the proceedings in Lebanese jeweller Global Royalty Trading SAL’s suit against her, involving 40-odd “missing” pieces of jewellery.

This is so that her appeal over the High Court’s dismissal of her application to rope in the police and the government as third parties in the US$14.57 million (RM68.3 million) lawsuit, can be disposed of first.

The hearing for her stay application is slated for Aug 16 before High Court judge Ong Chee Kwan. Both Rosmah’s counsel Rajivan Nambiar and Global Royalty’s counsel Venothani Rajagopal confirmed the matter on Monday when contacted.

Last month, Ong had dismissed Rosmah’s application, on the grounds that the police and the government were not entities in which prima facie have been found, to have committed any wrongdoing in this case, and were not responsible to contribute to any liability to Rosmah.

Furthermore, Ong said that Rosmah is at liberty to initiate a separate civil suit for any alleged losses suffered from the actions by the authorities in relation to the jewellery.

This is part of the international jeweller’s lawsuit against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s wife for breach of contract over 43 pieces of jewellery which are allegedly missing, following a raid by the authorities in 2018.

As part of her defence, Rosmah had contended that if the 43 pieces of jewellery were lost, the police or the Malaysian government should be made responsible for the losses.

She also claimed that the pieces of jewellery were in the possession of the authorities at all material time. Among other matters, Rosmah is asking for the police and the government to compensate and/or contribute to the reliefs sought by the jeweller.

Besides this suit, Rosmah has another pending case over jewelleries and other luxury items.

1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), SRC International Sdn Bhd and subsidiaries had filed a fresh suit against her last month, over some 12,000 luxury items, worth about US$350 million, which the plaintiffs claim were purchased through misappropriation of their funds.