PUTRAJAYA (March 3): Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor's final appeal to recuse the trial judge in her solar graft case while seeking a retrial of the already concluded case has been dismissed by the apex court.
In a unanimous decision, a three-member Federal Court panel led by senior apex court judge Datuk Nordin Hassan found that Rosmah failed to establish a real danger of bias by trial judge Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan in the case related to the solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.
Rosmah's appeal centres around the two draft notes or "judgement" which leaked in the 11th hour before Zaini delivered his decision on Sept 1, 2022.
She alleges that these notes or drafts, which were prepared by the KL High Court's research team, were akin to a judgement and even contained a "guilty" verdict which may have influenced the trial judge.
On Tuesday, the apex court found that Rosmah had failed to show the circumstance and situation which could give rise to a real danger of bias and that there were no appealable errors in the judgements of the courts below which required the top court's intervention.
"There is a strong presumption of judicial impartiality and judge impartiality [..] the moment they take the oath of office [...].
"[This is an] application to recuse the trial judge [where] he is in position to refute allegations and facts based on his personal knowledge.
"The trial judge, in his grounds of judgement said that he didn't rely on the draft or opinion by the research team [and that he] prepared [the judgement] himself," he said.
Nordin added that the Court of Appeal (COA) in dismissing Rosmah's appeal previously, also found that the prepared notes and draft differed from Zaini's actual written judgement.
The panel, which also included Federal Court judges Datuk Che Ruzima Ghazali and Datuk Azimah Omar, also found that Zaini did not violate the Judges Code of Ethics 2009.
Flashback: What happened on day of Rosmah’s 2022 verdict
On Sept 1, 2022, Zaini rejected the defence’s request to adjourn Rosmah’s last-minute recusal application over two draft notes that leaked on Aug 29. He noted that the certificate of urgency attached to the application had led him to set the hearing date for the same day as the verdict. The recusal application was filed on Aug 30, 2022.
The High Court application to recuse Zaini was heard after lengthy submissions, with lead defence counsel Datuk Jagjit Singh and deputy public prosecutor (DPP), the late Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, going head to head.
Zaini, now a COA judge, dismissed the application, saying the two documents were only research team opinions, not based on his instructions, and he didn’t use them since he writes his own judgments. He then immediately delivered the final verdict.
On Tuesday, the Federal Court ruled that Zaini’s decision not to postpone the 40-day trial verdict, during which 23 prosecution witnesses testified, did not violate Rosmah’s constitutional rights since her judge recusal application was heard and ventilated in court.
Rosmah, the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was found guilty on all three counts of graft and was sentenced to 10 years’ jail and fined a whopping RM970 million in 2022 — the largest amount ever imposed by the High Court for a graft case.
A case management has been slated for Wednesday to set dates for the main appeal against the verdict.
Besides Jagjit, Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader, Azrul Zulkifli Stork, Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin and Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad appeared for Rosmah.
DPP Mohd Asnawi Abu Hanipah appeared for the prosecution.