Statement to the police on alleged “paksaan” of Rahimi Osman to sign two statutory declarations 12 October 2010
By Latheefa Koya
Saiful Ramli and I, Latheefa Koya were questioned by the police at about 1030am today at the Bukit Aman’s Commerical Crime Investigation Division at Kompleks Bukit Perdana, KL.
We were accompanied by lawyers N. Surendran and Rashid Ismail.
The officer in charge is Superintendent Krishnan. We were questioned for at least an hour for investigation under Section 199 of the Penal Code (False statement made in any declaration which is by law receivable as evidence and carries an imprisonment under s.193 of Penal Code – extend from 3 to 7 years).
The following is my statement as given to the police. Thank you,
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Statement to the police on alleged “paksaan” of Rahimi Osman to sign two statutory declarations
12 October 2010
I wish to strongly state that at no point in time had I ever used any form of coercion, duress or undue influence on Rahimi Osman in relation to the statutory declarations that he signed.
At all the material times, I was among several lawyers assigned to prepare witness statements from several potential witnesses, which is a norm in any legal defence. In my several meetings with Rahimi, I was accompanied by another lawyer, Radzlan Jalaluddin to interview him at the PKR party headquarters at Merchant Square, Tropicana, Petaling Jaya. We prepared statutory declarations for some of the witnesses including Rahimi.
Rahimi voluntarily come to the Quality Hotel and briefed us on what has happened. He asked if he could stay at the hotel because he knew Saiful mentioned his name and he was concerned that he too may be taken away by the police.
Rahimi signed the first statutory declaration on 29 June 2008 at the Quality Hotel. He signed it voluntarily in front of lawyer, Member of Parliament and Commissioner of Oaths Wee Choo Keong.
The allegation that we “confined” him in Quality Hotel is ludicrous and totally untrue. He was there on his own free will at all times and volunteering information to assist us with DSAI’s case.
The second statutory declaration signed on 1 July 2008 before lawyer and Commissioner of Oaths S. Selvarajah at his law office at M/s Fernandez and Selvarajah.
On that day, Rahimi came separately on his own and met me at the said Commissioner of Oaths’ office and signed the second statutory declaration in front of him.
Rahimi’s allegation in his recent police report that I and Saiful Izham Ramli forced him to include a statement in his statutory declaration about Dato Seri Najib Razak and Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s involvement is completely false.
In Rahimi’s section 112 statement given to the police at IPK, KL on 23 July 2008 in the presence of his lawyer Stanley Sinnapan, he has himself confirmed that he knew that Saiful had met Najib and Rosmah. He also told the police that he himself was taken by Mumtaz Jaafar, a close friend of Rosmah to meet her and also Najib. Rahimi shared this information with me after his interview with the police. He also told the police about his meeting with Ezam Md Noor and SAC Rodwan.
Rahimi also voluntarily met me and other members of the legal team several times over the next few months to assist us on factual matters relating to DSAI’s case. Even though he was no longer officially employed at the office of DSAI, he has however continued to come over to the party headquarters for various reasons and he participated in the party’s campaign in the by-election in Permatang Pauh.
Rahimi even invited me to his wedding in 2009.
