THE trial for a civil suit by Lebanese jeweller Samer Halimeh against Rosmah Mansor is set to begin on September 17.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court also set October 21 to 24 as further trial dates.

Samer is suing Rosmah, the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, for allegedly failing to pay for 44 pieces of jewellery worth US$14.79 million (RM61 million).

His lawyer David Gurupatham also told Justice Wong Chee Lin today that he would be applying to the forfeiture court to intervene in an ongoing forfeiture suit by the government for the jewellery seized by Malaysian authorities in raids last year. This is to confirm whether any of the 44 pieces are among 12,000 items of jewellery seized.

Wong later set the dates, telling lawyers on both sides that interlocutory applications are to be filed before the trial.

“In the meantime, we are waiting for the items which were forfeited to be gazetted in the forfeiture court,” Rosmah’s lawyer Reza Rahim told The Malaysian Insight.

“In the event there is a gazette (that) shows that any part of the jewellery (seized) is in the forfeiture suit, we will strike out this (civil) suit before the trial date,” he said.

David had earlier informed the court that Samer had inspected pictures of the seized goods and confirmed that most of the jewellery claimed for his civil suit were not among the items seized.

“He has also given a statement to the police,” said David.

“Therefore the plaintiff (Samer) requested trial dates to be fixed for the plaintiff to claim the price and or seek the return of the balance of the jewelry not seized.”

The government and police filed a forfeiture suit on May 8 against Najib and 17 others to seize hundreds of items, including 27 Nissan vehicles.

The government is also seeking to seize RM18 million from accounts belonging to 10 individuals as well as a bungalow belonging to the family of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court set May 30 for the next case management of the forfeiture suit.  

Samer, whose celebrity clients include Angelina Jolie and Oprah Winfrey, runs the Beirut-based Global Royalty Trading SAL, under which the suit was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on June 26 last year.

Police seized more than 12,000 pieces of jewellery as part of their investigation into the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal weeks after May 9 elections last year, when Pakatan Harapan swept into power. Anti-money laundering laws only allow the police to hold seized items for one year.

The cumulative value of the items seized was estimated by police to be at between RM900 million and RM1.1 billion, making it the biggest seizure in the nation’s history. – May 24, 2019.