Rosmah, jeweller tussle over diamond bracelet as Najib seeks 7 watches

The Kuala Lumpur High Court was today told that Lebanese jewellery company Global Royalty Trading SAL and Rosmah Mansor are staking claim to a US$220,000 white gold diamond bracelet now being stored in Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) vaults.

Rosmah’s lawyer Azamuddin Abd Aziz informed judge Muhammad Jamil Hussin that the former prime minister’s wife wanted to proceed with the claim on the said bracelet.

“The pictures of the jewellery will be received today. We need time to seek confirmatory instructions from Rosmah regarding the third party claim,” he said when the matter came up for case management.

Rosmah’s legal team had previously applied for pictures of the seized jewellery to facilitate her claim.

Meanwhile, Global Royalty’s lawyer David Gurupatham insisted that the bracelet belonged to the jewellery company as it was verified by an expert from the company during a physical inspection last year.

“My Lord, Rosmah did not turn up at BNM for the inspection, and she waived the right to the inspection of the jewellery. For the record, Superintendent Foo Wei Min, who was the officer in charge, physically inspected every single piece of the jewellery. An expert from Global Royalty also verified that it belongs to the company,” he said.

The jewellery was among the items seized by the police from the premises belonging to Obyu Holdings Sdn Bhd at Pavilion Residences in May 2018, and which were allegedly linked to the 1MDB scandal.

In 2019, the prosecution filed a forfeiture application to seize various items including 11,991 items of jewellery, 401 watch straps and 16 watch accessories, 234 pairs of spectacles, and 306 handbags as well as cash in various denominations amounting to RM114,164,393.44.

At today’s proceedings, Najib Razak’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the former prime minister’s present third party claim was only on seven watches and not on the bracelet.

The lawyer had applied for the court to hold a separate hearing on Najib’s claim regarding the watches.

Shafee asked for the prosecution to amend its notice of motion regarding the forfeiture suit to facilitate a separate hearing for the seven watches.

“In regard to Najib’s claim, it is over seven units of watches. The others are settled. It would be very simple for the prosecution to make an amendment orally,” Shafee said, adding that this would prevent a delay in hearing the rest of the forfeiture claim involving other items.

Deputy public prosecutor Faten Hadni Khairuddin, responding to Shafee’s bid for a separate hearing on the claim for the seven watches, told the court that they needed more time to file a proper application to amend the notice of motion.

Jamil fixed June 8 for case management to allow the prosecution to amend the court documents for the forfeiture action.