APEX COURT DISMISSES ROSMAH’S FINAL BID TO RECUSE JUDGE IN SOLAR CASE

PUTRAJAYA, March 3 (Bernama) -- The Federal Court today dismissed Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s final appeal seeking the recusal of Judge Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, who convicted her in the RM1.25 billion Sarawak solar hybrid project corruption case.

A three-member panel led by Justice Datuk Nordin Hassan, alongside Justices Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Datuk Azimah Omar, unanimously ruled that there was no appealable error warranting the court’s intervention.

The court also held that Mohamed Zaini did not breach the Judges’ Code of Ethics 2009 following allegations that a leaked draft judgment had been prepared by the research unit of the Kuala Lumpur High Court before he delivered his decision on Sept 1, 2022.

"Thus, the appeal is dismissed," said Justice Nordin.

Rosmah, wife of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is appealing the Court of Appeal’s ruling that upheld the High Court’s refusal to recuse Judge Mohamed Zaini, now serving as a Court of Appeal judge, from her solar corruption case.

Justice Nordin said the sole issue in the appeal is whether the facts alleged by the applicant, Rosmah, give rise to a real danger of bias, arising from the trial judge’s purported reliance on a draft judgment or opinion prepared by a third party.

“This is for the applicant to establish and for the trial judge to determine based on his knowledge of the facts. The affidavit in reply by the respondent (the prosecution) and the further affidavit in reply by the applicant do not assist in the determination of the main issue here.

“This is not an ordinary averment of facts between two parties in a case. This is an application to recuse the trial judge, and the trial judge is in a position to refute the alleged facts based on his personal knowledge.

“The non-reply to the respondent’s affidavit would only have a minimal effect on any miscarriage of justice under the circumstances,” he said.

Justice Nordin said the trial judge, in dismissing the recusal application, stated in his grounds of judgment that he did not rely on the research unit’s draft opinion or judgment, but prepared his decision based on his own research and the parties’ submissions.

“Further, the Court of Appeal, having perused the draft opinion or draft judgment prepared by the research unit and the grounds of judgment of the trial judge, found that there were differences between the two and concluded that the trial judge had prepared the grounds of judgment himself without relying on the draft opinion or judgment prepared by the party with whom he agreed,” he said, adding that the court also found that this did not prove the existence of any real danger of bias.

On the question of the trial judge’s decision not to adjourn the recusal application, Justice Nordin said this alone does not constitute a valid ground for recusal.

“The applicant was heard on the recusal application for about one hour and 15 minutes, and we find that the trial judge’s decision not to allow any postponement of the application was appropriate in the circumstances and did not breach any principles of natural justice or the constitutional rights of the applicant.

“We further find that there was no procedural impropriety in the present case,” he said.

Rosmah filed the recusal application at the eleventh hour, just before Judge Mohamed Zaini was set to deliver his decision on Sept 1, 2022, citing allegations that a draft judgment had been prepared by a third party and leaked before its official release.

On the same day, Rosmah was convicted of corruption over the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.

She was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and fined RM970 million, with an additional 30-year prison term should she fail to pay the fine.

Subsequently, the High Court granted her a stay of execution for both the jail term and fine pending her appeal.

Rosmah faces one charge of soliciting RM187.5 million and two charges of receiving bribes totaling RM6.5 million from former Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin.

Met after the proceedings, Rosmah’s lawyer, Datuk Jagjit Singh, told reporters that they would take instructions from their client on whether to file a review of the Federal Court’s decision, while another counsel, Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader, said the main appeal in the solar case has been fixed for case management tomorrow.

-- BERNAMA