Star apologises to lawyer Rosli Dahlan

In October 2007 we had published two news articles about the arrest and prosecution of lawyer Rosli Dahlan with the titles “ACA arrests Singapore lawyer” and “Lawyer charged with hiding information on his assets” respectively.

We acknowledge that the words used in the articles refer to lawyer Rosli and they were untrue and should be clarified as follows:

> That he is not a Singapore lawyer and is in fact a Malaysian lawyer;

> That he does not hold a PR Status and in truth is a Malaysian citizen;

> That he is not and has never been a nominee for the senior police officer under investigation nor for that matter any other police officer;

> That he had not failed to file a declaration required by the Anti-Corruption Agency and in truth and in fact had filed a statutory declaration dated 20.09.2007, within the period stipulated by the notice served on him, under section 32(l) (c) of the Anti-Corruption Act 1997 declaring that he does not hold any assets for any police officer;

> That he was never issued with any order to declare his spouse’s assets nor was his spouse asked to make any declaration of her assets; and

> That he is not connected to, nor did he hide any assets, nor was he charged for hiding any assets of the senior police officer who was then under investigation by the ACA.

Our said news articles have conveyed the meaning that Rosli was a foreign lawyer who had acted in manner contrary to the proper behaviour and ethics of an advocate and solicitor.

We wish to clarify that we did not intend to cast any such negative imputation against the character or reputation of Rosli and any such imputation is greatly regretted.

If such imputation was conveyed in the article, we hereby unreservedly and unconditionally apologise to Rosli for any distress or embarrassment that he may have suffered as a result of the publication.