UTUSAN APOLOGISES TO LAWYER ROSLI DAHLAN

We hereby unconditionally apologise to Lawyer Rosli Dahlan for our said untruthful article. We regret our conduct and realise the damage that we have done to him. - Utusan Malaysia

In October 2007, while the Muslim community were preparing to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri, we had published a news article about the arrest and prosecution of lawyer Rosli Dahlan with the title "Police Lawyer failed to declare asset charged in court today”.

In that article we made several allegations which were untrue against Lawyer Rosli Dahlan as follows:

1. That he is a Singapore citizen who carries out legal practice in Malaysia, whereas he is truly and indeed a Malaysian citizen;

2. That he has breached the laws of the country by refusing to make an asset declaration, whereas he had indeed made the said declaration;

3. That he had hidden the asset of a senior police officer who was under investigation by the ACA, whereas he never did that;

4. That he is of malevolent character and had acted deceptively in his dealings to frustrate the ACA investigations, whereas he had always fully co-operated with the ACA and his actions were always within the requirements of the law.

Our said article has given a totally wrong depiction of lawyer Rosli Dahlan as a foreign lawyer who had acted in a manner contrary to the proper behavior and ethics of an advocate and solicitor.

We hereby unconditionally apologise to lawyer Rosli Dahlan for our said untruthful article. We regret our conduct and realise the damage that we have done to him.

We acknowledge that the said article was written and published in a sensational manner to generate publicity which exceeded the parameters of ethical journalism surrounding the investigation of YDH Dato' Pahlawan Haji Ramli Haji Yusuff who at that time held the post of Director of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department of Police DiRaja Malaysia.

Utusan Malaysia now understands that lawyer Rosli Dahlan has commenced action against the Government of Malaysia, the Attorney General and the ACA specifically to set aside the notice against the said lawyer that has been issued in contravention of the provisions of the law. Lawyer Rosli Dahlan is also seeking damages for the loss and injury suffered by him.