The High Court ordered attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail to file his defence against the malicious prosecution suits filed by lawyer Rosli Dahlan and former Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Ramli Yusof within 30 days.

 

The order came after Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera refused to grant a stay of proceedings sought by Gani and other defendants in the multi-million ringgit suit.

 

“There are no special circumstances to grant the stay,” he said. Following this, the court fixed July 29 for case management.

 

Ramli and Rosli ( photo ) had filed separate suits for malicious prosecution against Gani and several others in what is known as the Copgate affair.

 

Justice Vazeer had last year dismissed Gani's application to strike out both suits.

 

“I am afraid that the notion of absolute immunity for a public servant, even when mala fide or abuse of power in the exercise of their prosecutorial power is alleged in the pleadings, is anathema to modern day notions of accountability.

 

"I agree that deliberate abuse of power by a person holding a public office is tortious and is referred to as misfeasance in public office.

"Such a tortious act can arise when an officer actuated by malice, for example, by personal spite or a desire to injure for improper reasons, abuses his power.

 

"This is keeping with developments in modern jurisprudence that absolute immunity for public servants has no place in a progressive democratic society," said Vazeer in April last year.

 

Gani's appeal dismissed

The Court of Appeal has also in January this year dismissed Gani's appeal to strike out the RM47 million suit filed by Rosli and the RM148.5 million suit filed by Ramli.

 

Gani has indicated that he will appeal Justice Vazeer's ruling to the Federal Court.

 

Ramli ( photo ) had today finished testifying in a RM50 million suit filed by Rosli against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission before Justice Su Geok Yiam.

 

The ex-top cop had yesterday told the court how former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan and Gani had conspired to fix him up for corruption.

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