KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan will decide after lunch if Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s defence application to recuse him from trial proceedings will be accepted or not.
Rosmah’s defence counsel Datuk Jagjit Singh had been arguing since 9.30am this morning that Zaini would be influenced by documents leaked several days ago that mentioned Rosmah would be prosecuted and found guilty of accepting bribes in return for government contracts.
Jagjit told the court that the leaked documents were said to have been prepared by the judiciary’s research division on behalf of Zaini, and as a result, the public perception towards Zaini would be tarnished.
“The part that mentions done for, prepared for are dangerous. It seems like it was prepared by someone with knowledge of court proceedings and even one part here looks like the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) style of preparing documents. So I ask are these fake or real?” he told the court.
Zaini appeared to be unimpressed with Jagjit’s remarks and reprimanded him for bringing the documents up if he didn’t want to pursue the matter in detail.
He then asked Jagjit to explain his reason for bringing up the leaked documents and related articles in court, which Jagjit refused, but later conceded that he felt these documents and articles would influence Zaini when he made his judgment.
Zaini: You are saying these documents are trial judgments prepared for me? Do you see these two documents as trial judgments?
Jagjit: They seem like outright judgments.
Zaini: Are you insinuating I’ll use this for my judgment?
Jagjit: That’s the danger... the perception.
When it was his turn to address the court, deputy public prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram explained very briefly that the research unit in courts are used worldwide and is nothing new.
He then asked Jagjit what he would do if the judgment later found his client not guilty.
“The accused in her affidavit says she has no confidence in this judge. I want to ask my learned friend what he would do if they found her not guilty? She directly attacked this court and my Lordship’s independence and Jagjit said he won’t delay this trial and its outcome pending the police investigations.
“We feel there is insufficient evidence to warrant conclusively that there are thresholds for bias. All three articles are hearsay,” Sri Ram said.
The court then adjourned for lunch with proceedings set to resume at 2.30pm.
