PUTRAJAYA: Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, has failed in her appeal to have Judge Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan recuse himself from hearing and deciding on her RM1.25 billion Sarawak solar hybrid project corruption trial.
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Judge Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, unanimously ruled that Rosmah’s application had no merit.
“The solar case involving the appellant has been heard by the trial judge, Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, for more than two years and throughout that period, the appellant never filed an application for him to step aside.
“During that time, the appellant accepted that the judge was fair and impartial. Therefore, we find the application to be without merit, and she has failed to show a real danger of bias,” he said.
The other judges on the panel were Datuk Azman Abdullah and Datuk Noorin Badaruddin.
Justice Ahmad Zaidi said that after examining the submissions and statements, the court noted there were two sets of written judgments in this case: a 71-page version allegedly prepared by a third party, and a 116-page version written by the trial judge.
“Having reviewed both documents, it is clear to us that there are significant differences between them.
“This supports the trial judge’s assertion that he prepared his own written judgment without relying on the version allegedly produced by a third party,” he said.
Rosmah had filed her application for Judge Mohamed Zaini to step aside at the eleventh hour, just before he was scheduled to deliver his decision on Sept 1, 2022.
The application was based on claims that a draft judgment in the case had been prepared by a third party and leaked before it was officially delivered.
On the same day, Rosmah was convicted of corruption involving the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak and sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined RM970 million.
The court also ordered an additional 30-year prison term should she fail to pay the fine.
However, the High Court granted her request for a stay of execution of both the jail term and fine pending her appeal at the Court of Appeal.
Rosmah faces one charge of soliciting RM187.5 million and two charges of receiving bribes amounting to RM6.5 million from former Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director, Saidi Abang Samsudin. - Bernama
