PUTRAJAYA (April 14): The Federal Court has scheduled July 29 to hear Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s application to review an earlier decision that dismissed her bid to recuse the judge in her solar hybrid project trial.

The hearing date was confirmed by Rosmah's counsel, Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader and deputy public prosecutor Afzainizam Abdul Aziz. Both spoke to The Edge following a case management session on Tuesday before Federal Court deputy registrar Rohaiza Hamzah.

Akberdin was at case management with counsel Datuk Jagjit Singh along with lawyers Meor Hafiz Salehan and Harel Narayan while Afzainizam attended for the prosecution.

“The court directed that all submissions are to be filed by May 5, while reply on July 14. And fixed the hearing date on July 29,” he added.

Despite this upcoming review, Rosmah’s separate appeal against her actual conviction, which has been scheduled for July 1 to 3 at the Court of Appeal, remains unchanged, added Afzainizam. This appeal to challenge her High Court conviction had been pending since September 2022.

On March 3, a three-member Federal Court bench led by judge Datuk Nordin Hassan dismissed Rosmah's initial appeal to recuse trial judge Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and invalidate her graft trial.

Zaini had, on Sept 1, 2022, found Rosmah guilty on all three corruption charges she faced involving the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project for Sarawak rural schools. He then sentenced her to 10 years jail, with a whopping RM970 million fine.

Rosmah's challenge had centred around leaked drafts allegedly prepared by the Kuala Lumpur High Court's research team. Rosmah contends that the documents contained a "guilty" verdict that might have influenced the judge's final decision. Zaini, however, had dismissed her challenge, saying he had written his own judgment on the matter.

“The trial judge, in his grounds of judgment said he didn't rely on the draft or opinion by the research team [and that he] prepared [the judgment] himself," Nordin cited in dismissing her appeal earlier this year.

The subsequent dismissal of Rosmah's appeal by the Court of Appeal also found that the prepared notes and draft differed from Zaini's actual written judgment, the apex judge noted.

Nevertheless, despite the apex bench's decision, Rosmah filed for a judicial review, resulting in the July 29 hearing date.