Justice Aliza Sulaiman held that the police, immigration department and the government had acted unlawfully and in bad faith in Rosli’s arrest and remand in 2023 during investigations linked to i-Serve Technology & Vacation Sdn Bhd and MYAirline.
She also held as unlawful the freezing of Rosli’s bank and unit trust accounts, and the imposition of travel restrictions on him.
The judge allowed an application by Rosli for a judicial review against the police, immigration department and the government. Rosli was awarded RM50,000 in costs but his claim for damages was rejected for not having sufficiently listed the alleged losses suffered.
Aliza held that there was no reasonable suspicion that Rosli had committed any offence under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (Amla) and he had not been charged with any criminal offence to date in the investigations.
The court noted that police reports dated Oct 13 and Oct 16, 2023 did not name or implicate Rosli, and that he was not a shareholder, director, employee nor officer of i-Serve.
The judge pointed out that Bukit Aman issued a statement on Oct 26, 2023 confirming that no police reports had been lodged by victims linked to the i-Serve and MYAirline investment scheme.
Nonetheless, Rosli was arrested later that night, with news reports of the arrest surfacing within minutes. Aliza further found that no statement was recorded from Rosli throughout his detention and remand.
On the freezing of Rosli’s bank accounts, the court ruled that the police failed to meet the requirements under Amla before issuing the orders.
It added that information and documents from Taiwan relating to Rosli were only obtained after the arrest, remand, freezing orders and travel restrictions had already been imposed.
“This is a classic example of an enforcement agency’s conduct to act first and investigate later,” the judge said.
The travel ban imposed on Rosli was deemed unlawful as it was not issued as part of a freezing order as required under the law.
Lawyers Chetan Jethwani, Harvinderjit Singh, Amiratu Al Amirat and Ho Yu Fei represented Rosli while federal counsel Safiyyah Omar represented the respondents.
In his judicial review application, Rosli named the inspector-general of police, Bukit Aman commercial crime investigation department director, senior investigating officers, the immigration department and the government as defendants.
He sought orders to quash the actions taken against him, alleging abuse of power in linking him to police reports involving i-Serve and MYAirline despite having no connection to the matters.