.JPG "A vehicle ferrying Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor is pictured leaving the Kuala Lumpur High Court December 10, 2021. u00e2u20acu2022 Picture by Firdaus Latiff")
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s corruption trial before the High Court could not go on today, as the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak still has a MySejahtera status that is “orange” in colour.
This morning was scheduled for the continuation of Rosmah’s trial where she would have to testify in her own defence, but just like Wednesday or two days ago, her MySejahtera status was not “blue” or “low-risk”.
High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan this morning asked Rosmah’s lawyers about her MySejahtera status.
“I understand this morning, the status was verified by the court registrar, I was out away from the verification, but I believe it is orange colour,” Rosmah’s lawyer Datuk Jagjit Singh told the court, adding that he did not personally see the MySejahtera status but that it was verified by the court registrar.
Earlier, before the court proceedings started around 10.17am, the court staff and Rosmah’s lawyers were seen going to a car within the court compound where Rosmah was in, and were believed to be there checking her MySejahtera status.
The Kuala Lumpur court complex only allows those with blue status in their MySejahtera to enter.
The “blue” status refers to the “low-risk” classification, while the “yellow” status is for “casual contacts with no symptoms” or “persons under surveillance”, and the “orange” status refers to the classifications of “casual contacts with symptoms”, “close contacts” and “suspected cases”, while the red status is for confirmed Covid-19 cases.
Lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram then suggested for Rosmah to testify through video-conferencing in the trial, while the lawyers and judge continue in the trial physically in court.
“May I suggest if it’s convenient, only if it’s convenient to Your Lordship, we can proceed on this trial on hybrid, if she can give evidence from her lawyer’s office or her home. We will have a supervising DPP present, they can have a supervising solicitor present. Your Lordship can have her on a screen,” he said.
Zaini said he had thought about conducting the trial through a hybrid method as well, but expressed the need for caution.
“I thought about that, I’ve gone through the relevant provisions, there doesn’t seem to be any relevant provision. I’d like to be a bit more cautious,” he said, adding that he wanted to avoid the trial being “derailed” at this stage.
“It has crossed my mind, I have thought of it. But I’d like to be a bit more cautious, so we have no choice but to vacate then,” he said.
“Could we do the same thing on Monday, Datuk Jagjit, could you trouble your client to come on Monday and we go through the same process and see whether the status has turned blue in MySejahtera?” the judge said.
Next Monday (December 13) is when Rosmah’s corruption trial resumes where she is expected to continue to testify, with December 23 and December 24 also previously scheduled for continuation of the trial.
Rosmah’s lawyer Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader today confirmed to the judge that there would be two more defence witnesses after Rosmah, with the second witness to be former Prime Minister’s Office officer Datuk Seri Siti Azizah Sheikh Abod and the third and final witness to be Najib himself.
Akberdin had said Rosmah’s lawyers expect that they may need at most another four days of hearings with the two additional defence witnesses, confirming that their witness statements would not really be long and also noting that the prosecution had said their cross-examination would not be long.
When the judge noted that he thought Rosmah’s lawyers would be calling Najib as a defence witness, Akberdin replied: “Yes, that will be our last witness.”
Sri Ram interjected at this point to say regarding Najib: “My cross-examination of that witness will be a little long, but I don’t think I will trouble Your Lordship with anything irrelevant.”
Following the judge’s request for more trial dates to be scheduled for this case, further trial dates were fixed next year from January 10 to 14 and on February 4.
In this corruption trial, Rosmah is facing three charges, including allegedly receiving a RM5 million bribe and a RM1.5 million bribe from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd’s Saidi Abang Samsudin on the dates of December 20, 2016, and September 7, 2017, in exchange for helping the company get the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project.
Rosmah is also accused of soliciting RM187.5 million from Saidi in January to April 2016.
