PUTRAJAYA (Oct 5): Lawyers for Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor indicated to the Court of Appeal on Wednesday (Oct 5) that they want their appeal against High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan’s refusal to recuse himself be heard first, rather than the main appeal with regard to her conviction and sentence in the solar hybrid graft trial.

This was indicated by Rosmah’s counsel Datuk Jagjit Singh to Court of Appeal deputy registrar Mohd Khairi Haron during case management on Wednesday.

Deputy public prosecutor Poh Yih Tinn was said to have no objection to the defence's application for the appeal against Zaini’s refusal to recuse himself be heard first.

Jagjit also indicated that they had yet to pick up the record of appeal for the case.

Following that, Khairi directed the defence to file their petition of appeal by Nov 14, where the appellate court fixed the same day as case management for Rosmah’s appeal.

A petition of appeal contains the grounds or reasons an appeal is made to set aside a conviction and sentence.

Rosmah, 70, was found guilty by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Sept 1 on three counts of graft with regard to the solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.

She was convicted of soliciting RM187.5 million from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd, the contractor that was awarded the RM1.25 billion project by the Ministry of Education between April and August 2016.

The wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was also found guilty of receiving RM5 million and RM1.5 million, from Jepak Holdings managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin, at her private residence in Jalan Langgak Duta and at the then prime minister's official residence in Seri Perdana between Dec 20, 2016 and Sept 7, 2017.

A total of 23 prosecution witnesses and two defence witnesses, including Rosmah, testified in the trial.

Rosmah was sentenced to 10 years' jail and fined RM970 million, the largest for a graft case in Malaysia.

Zaini in finding Rosmah guilty of all charges warned that corruption must be curtailed, or it would in turn become a pandemic to the society.

Prior to delivering his decision, Zaini also dismissed Rosmah’s application for him to recuse himself from presiding over the case, following an apparent leak of the purported judgement.

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