Admitted to practice in 1995, Kamarul is a highly regarded practitioner in top-end criminal defence trials and appeals and is experienced in all types of claims relating to public authorities, including judicial reviews and regulatory works.
After defending Malaysia’s first terrorists against the King and the Government of Malaysia in the Al-Maunah case, he served as Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) and Senior Federal Counsel (SFC) under special tenure offered by the Government of Malaysia, the first in the history of Attorney-General’s Chambers.
As DPP and SFC, he headed prosecution in several notorious and widely publicized cases, such as extradition prosecution of Italian national Ottavio Quattrocchi over the alleged Bofors arms scandal involving the Government of India as requesting state, the prosecution of the Director of the Legal Qualifying Board, Datuk Khalid Yusof, and the successful defence of the deportation of terror suspects to the US.
He has successfully led the defence of several Securities Commission cases dealing with market manipulation and offences of misstatements in the public listing of corporations. He has also taken the sphere of corporate defence into the areas of corporate injunctions and shareholders’ disputes and his expertise in criminal and corporate litigation places him in the enviable position of vetting and drafting corporate agreements in order to maximize advantage and reduce risks in potential corporate disputes. He is also regarded as an expert on cases involving offences under anti-money laundering laws.
In 2005, he was called to the defence in the murder trial of Dato’ Seri Koh Kim Teck which led to an acquittal. Following thereon, he was lead defence counsel for Korporal Sirul Azhar Hj Umar in the 2007 murder case of Mongolian national, Altantuya Shaariibu. On appeal, the Court of Appeal acquitted the Korporal in 2013. In 2014 on appeal by the Prosecution the Federal Court overturned the acquittal.