PUTRAJAYA, Feb 25 — The Federal Court today postponed the hearing of Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s appeal to remove the trial judge who convicted her in the solar bribery case to March 3, as she is on sick leave until February 28.
Rosmah — who will turn 75 in December — was not present in the courtroom this morning, and her lawyer requested for a short postponement as she is on medical leave but wants to attend the hearing.
Her lead lawyer Datuk Jagjit Singh said Rosmah “sustained a fall but managed to prevent a complete fall”.
“But in the process, she injured her hand as well, and knees also,” he informed the Federal Court this morning.
Later when met, Jagjit confirmed to reporters that Rosmah had injured her knees and right shoulder on February 23 (Sunday) while breaking her fall at home, and that the medical leave certificate is from February 24 to February 28.
Jagjit told the court that he was informed of this yesterday evening, and that the prosecution has no objection to this request for postponement.
Quizzed by Federal Court judge Datuk Azimah Omar if Rosmah was admitted to the hospital for the fall, Jagjit said Rosmah was advised to do so “but she didn’t want to be admitted”.
Azimah then noted that Rosmah should have been hospitalised since she was given sick leave until February 28: “If at all, if she can’t even attend court, she should not be at home, she should be at hospital.”
Azimah also said this was not a question of whether Rosmah would like to be admitted into hospital or not: “You are asking for adjournment for a matter in the Federal Court which is long pending.”
Deputy public prosecutor Mangaiarkarasi Krishnan, who represented the prosecution, did not object to the adjournment request and left it to the court to decide.
Federal Court judge Datuk Nordin Hassan, who chaired the three-judge panel, then allowed the request for a short adjournment and fixed the appeal hearing on March 3.
While Rosmah’s lawyers indicated that they also have other court cases on March 3, Nordin maintained the March 3 hearing date, saying that Rosmah’s case is a “priority” and “public interest case” .
Why is today’s case important?
On September 1, 2022, trial judge Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan in the High Court found Rosmah guilty in the bribery case involving a solar project for Sarawak’s schools, and sentenced her to 10 years’ jail and a RM970 million fine.
Rosmah is appealing against her 2022 conviction and the jail sentence and fine, but the Court of Appeal has yet to hear this appeal.
This is because Rosmah is still trying to remove Zaini as the trial judge, with the aim of getting another High Court judge to hear the entire solar bribery trial.
Rosmah had failed at both the High Court and the Court of Appeal to remove or recuse Zaini.
The Federal Court was today scheduled to hear Rosmah’s appeal against her failed bid to remove Zaini as her trial judge.
To date, Rosmah has not had to serve the jail sentence, as the High Court had allowed the sentence to be suspended while she appeals her conviction.
Rosmah also tries to recuse two judges today
Today, Jagjit said Rosmah wanted to have two of the judges removed from the Federal Court panel — which would hear her bid to remove Zaini as trial judge.
Jagjit said he had received instructions from Rosmah to apply to recuse Nordin and Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali, as they had both heard related matters at the Federal Court and Court of Appeal respectively.
Jagjit said Rosmah “felt discomfort” with Nordin being on the panel today due to him having been part of panels hearing those cases, but acknowledged it was not directly related to the appeal to remove Zaini.
Che Mohd Ruzima remarked that today’s case is unrelated to the case he had previously heard and referred to the need for “real danger of bias” before a judge is recused, but Jagjit said this was his client’s “perception”.
After a brief discussion among the panel, Nordin said the Federal Court has decided to reject Rosmah’s bid to remove two of the judges.
“I conferred with my colleagues, and with regards to the recusal application of both myself and Datuk Ruzima, I find there’s no real danger of bias for us to recuse ourselves. We have responsibility to hear cases in court, so both applications to recuse us are dismissed,” Nordin said.
This means the same Federal Court panel will hear Rosmah’s case on March 3.
Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader, one of Rosmah’s lawyers, today confirmed to reporters that the cases that the two judges had previously heard were regarding Rosmah’s bid to remove then lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram from the solar trial and to nullify the trial.
Rosmah was represented today by a team of more than 10 lawyers from several law firms, including Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, Azrul Zulkifli Stork, Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad, Meor Hafiz Salehan, Puteri Ummi Kartini Abd Latiff, Harel Nieryan, Ahmad Redza Akberdin, Lee Yee Woei and Azalea Zulkifli.
Also representing the prosecution today were deputy public prosecutors Ng Siew Wee and Sarulatha Paramavathar.
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