Rosmah Mansor faces three charges of soliciting bribes and receiving $1.5 million between 2016 and 2017 to help a company secure a project to provide solar energy panels to schools on Borneo island.
Rosmah Mansor, wife of former Malaysian PM Najib Razak has sought to remove a high court judge who is set to deliver a verdict in her graft trial.
(Vincent Thian / AP)
The wife of jailed ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak faces a verdict in her corruption trial involving a $279 million solar energy project, just days after her husband was imprisoned over the looted 1MDB state fund.
Rosmah Mansor faces three charges of soliciting bribes and receiving $1.5 million between 2016 and 2017 to help a company secure a project to provide solar energy panels to schools on Borneo island.
Before the verdict is delivered on Thursday, the court is expected to hear an application filed on Tuesday by Rosmah to disqualify High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan.
Rosmah cited a loss of confidence in the judge after a 71-page document was leaked last Friday on a website that allegedly contained a guilty judgment against her. She said she was shocked to read it was not written by the judge himself but by unknown people in the court’s “research unit.”
Rosmah, 70, said she was not confident that the judge can be fair as he may be influenced by third parties. She is requesting Zaini to recuse himself and for a retrial by a new judge.
Rosmah Mansor, wife of former Malaysian PM Najib Razak, arrives at Kuala Lumpur High Court on September 1, 2022 for a verdict in her corruption trial involving a $279 million solar energy project.
(Vincent Thian / AP)
Leaks of ruling drafts
Malaysia’s top court has slammed the action of the website, run by a blogger based in England, as “a deliberate act” to smear the court’s reputation and has lodged a complaint with police. Police have said the leaked document was research work on the ongoing trial and not a judgment.
Last week, the court also filed a police report against the same website for publishing a document it said was the Federal Court’s guilty verdict against Najib, just before the ruling was read out in court. The court has said the leaked document was a working draft of the ruling.
Najib began a 12-year prison term last week after losing his final appeal in one of the five graft cases against him involving the multibillion-dollar pilfering of 1MDB. Najib unsuccessfully tried to introduce fresh evidence at the last minute to nullify the trial, accusing the trial judge of a conflict of interest.
If found guilty, Rosmah is expected to remain out on bail for her appeal to higher courts.
The couple have been hit with multiple counts of graft after the shocking ouster of Najib's United Malays National Organization in May 2018 elections, fueled by public anger over the 1MDB scandal.
UMNO has since returned to power after defections caused the collapse of the reformist government that won 2018 polls.
Rosmah's trial had shed light on her alleged sway in the government since her husband took office in 2009.
First Lady of Malaysia's Hermes
Prosecutors said Rosmah wielded considerable influence due to her “overbearing nature," even though she held no official position. Witnesses testified that a special department, called First Lady of Malaysia, was set up to handle Rosmah’s affairs.
Her former aide told the court that many businessmen lobbied Rosmah for help to secure government projects. The aide testified Rosmah was feared by civil servants and requests from her department were often swiftly carried out.
The court also heard that she spent $22,300 a month to hire online propagandists to deflect criticism of her lavish lifestyle that led to her being despised by many Malaysians.
After Najib lost power, police raiding family residences seized hundreds of boxes of luxurious Hermes Birkin handbags, 423 watches, 14 tiaras and other jewelries plus cash estimated at more than $246 million.
During her trial, 23 prosecution witnesses testified but only two defense witnesses were called, including Rosmah. She has told the court she was never involved in government affairs and that her former aide was a corrupt liar who had used her name to solicit bribes and pocketed the money himself.
Separately, Rosmah has also been charged with laundering illegal proceeds and tax evasion linked to 1MDB in another trial that hasn’t started.
1MDB was a development fund that Najib set up after taking office. Investigators allege more than $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates.
READ MORE: Malaysia's top court upholds former PM Najib's jail sentence in 1MDB case
Source: AP
Graft complaints against government officials must be investigated without delay, Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena said here on Tuesday while expressing displeasure over the time being taken to process such cases.
The L-G has taken a serious view of procedural lapses and delays by investigating agencies like the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) and the Directorate of Vigilance (DoV) in the course of investigation into complaints and cases of corruption against government officials, Raj Niwas said in a statement.
Calls for explanation
“He has called for an explanation by ACB officers concerned for all matters pending for more than one year and asked the department to furnish a list of all such cases citing reasons for pendency to his Secretariat,” it stated.
Mr. Saxena issued strict instructions to the DoV and all departments to “carefully consider” all cases and complaints referred to them for comments and examination and ensure that these are provided within a fixed timeframe “after judicious application of mind.”
While there were many cases of investigation pending since 2012-2017, the administrative departments were found to not have furnished their comments. In others, the DoV had submitted “self-contradictory recommendations” for grant of sanction.
“Advising the DoV to ensure that requests from the ACB are submitted for his consideration only after due diligence by the administrative departments against whose official the complaint has been made, the L-G has instructed that comments of the administrative department be put on record without fail,” Raj Niwas stated.
“It should be ensured that the recommendations made by the various agencies are to the farthest possible extent, not in variance of each other and are not self-contradictory which will ensure speedy disposal of cases on one hand and also ensure justice to the complainant as well as respondent,” it added.
