The wife of former Prime Minister Najib Razak arrived in court on Thursday to receive a verdict in his corruption trial involving a 1.25 billion ringgit ($279 million) solar power project, just days after her husband was imprisoned for the looting of the state fund 1MDB.
Rosmah Mansor faces three counts of soliciting bribes and receiving 6.5 million ringgit ($1.5 million) between 2016 and 2017 to help a company secure a project to provide solar energy panels to schools on the island of Borneo.
Before the verdict is delivered, the court is expected to hear a request filed Tuesday by Rosmah to disqualify High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan. Rosmah cited a loss of confidence in the judge after a 71-page document was leaked on a website last Friday that allegedly contained a guilty verdict against her. She said that she was surprised to read that it was written not by the judge but by unknown persons in the court’s “investigation unit”.
Rosmah, 70, said she was not confident that the judge could be fair as third parties may influence him. She requests Zaini to recuse himself and for a retrial by a new judge.
Malaysia’s top court has slammed the action of the website, run by a blogger based in England, as “a deliberate act” to smear the court’s reputation and has complained to the police. Police have said the leaked document was research work on the ongoing trial and not a judgment.
Last week, the court filed a police report against the same website for publishing a document it said was the Federal Court’s guilty verdict against Najib, just before the ruling was read out in court. The court has said the leaked document was a working draft of the ruling.
Najib began a 12-year prison term last week after losing his final appeal in one of the five graft cases against him involving the multibillion-dollar pilfering of 1MDB. Rosmah is expected to remain on bail for her appeal to higher courts if found guilty.
The couple has been hit with multiple counts of graft after the shocking ouster of Najib’s United Malays National Organization in the May 2018 elections, fueled by public anger over the 1MDB scandal. UMNO has since returned to power after defections caused the collapse of the reformist government that won the 2018 polls.
Rosmah’s trial had shed light on her alleged sway in the government since her husband took office in 2009. Prosecutors said Rosmah wielded considerable influence due to her “overbearing nature,” even though she held no official position. Witnesses testified that a special department, called First Lady of Malaysia, was set up to handle Rosmah’s affairs.
Her former aide, jointly charged with Rosmah but later testified for the prosecution, told the court that many businessmen lobbied Rosmah for help to secure government projects. The aide testified civil servants feared Rosmah, and requests from her department were often swiftly carried out.
The court also heard that she spent 100,000 ringgit a month ($22,300) to hire online propagandists to deflect criticism of her lavish lifestyle, which led to her being despised by many Malaysians.
After Najib lost power, police raided family residences. They seized hundreds of boxes of luxury Hermes Birkin bags, 423 watches, 14 tiaras and other jewellery, and cash estimated at more than 1.1 billion ringgit (246 million dollars).
During his trial, 23 prosecution witnesses testified, but only two defence witnesses, including Rosmah, were called. She told the court that she was never involved in government affairs and that her former assistant was a corrupt liar who used her name to solicit bribes and pocketed the money.
Separately, Rosmah has also been charged with illegal money laundering and tax evasion linked to 1MDB in another trial she has not started.
1MDB was a development fund that Najib created after taking office. Investigators allege that more than $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and that Najib’s associates laundered it through layers of bank accounts in the US and other countries to finance Hollywood movies and extravagant purchases that included hotels, a yacht luxury, works of art and jewellery.