COMMENT | In defending the attorney-general’s (AG) decision not to pursue Rosmah Mansor's appeal over her RM7 million money laundering and tax evasion case, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim seemed to pin the blame on his predecessor, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and former AG Tommy Thomas.

In trying his best to speak like a lawyer, Anwar argued the case was too weak as the foundation of the case was baseless, prompting the current AG Dusuki Mokhtar to review the case and make a decision to withdraw the appeal, which led to Rosmah’s acquittal.

It is common knowledge - at least among the criminal law practitioners - that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) invariably claims it has been strictly adhering to the following tenet in launching a criminal prosecution, namely until and unless such a criminal prosecution would have a high chance of securing a conviction the prosecution agency in the AGC no criminal prosecution would be initiated against anybody.

Guided by such a credo, the AGC has been very slow in not pursuing any appeal once the decision to appeal is made. Thus, a trial judge may conclude that the prosecution has a relatively weak case, but the AGC will, in turn, vigorously challenge such a conclusion via the appeal mechanism.

Withdrawing the appeal - unless it is motivated by any non-legal consideration - is almost a no-go. Pointing a finger at a former AG in the previous government, which led to Rosmah’s appeal being withdrawn, with the greatest respect, is completely uncalled for and unbecoming of Anwar.

The AGC tried to hammer home that the decision to...