Rosmah Mansor, the wife of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, has failed in her leave application to review the Federal Court’s dismissal of her appeal to recuse judge Zaini Mazlan in her bid for a retrial of her corruption case due to possible bias.
Zaini was the judge who convicted her of three corruption charges linked to the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project in Sarawak in 2022.
A panel of three Federal Court judges, led by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Azizah Nawawi, held that the previous Federal Court panel that dismissed her appeal was not biased, putting Rosmah’s recusal and retrial bid to rest.
At today’s hearing, Rosmah’s lawyer Akberdin Abdul Kader argued that there was a quorum failure at the previous bench, given that judges Che Ruzima Ghazali and Nordin Abdullah had previously heard and decided on one of Rosmah’s applications at the pre-trial stage of the case.
The lawyer said that the matter was raised at the previous bench’s hearing when an application was made to recuse the two judges from hearing Rosmah’s appeal, but this was dismissed.
However, the panel rejected Akberdin’s argument.
“On the facts of this case, we find that there was no such quorum failure. The judges were fully capable of exercising their judicial functions at all material times.
“We are also of the constant opinion that the applicant’s (Rosmah) complaint was not merely about the quorum failure, but rather it is a decision of the panel in dismissing the application to recuse the two judges.
“We are of the (view) that the earlier applications were separate and were purely just procedural in nature.
“We find that previous judicial involvement of an early decision against the applicant does not by itself create a real danger of bias,” she said.
As such, Azizah adds, Rosmah’s application has failed to pass the threshold for review under Rule 137 of the Federal Court Rules 1995.
Presiding with her were judges Lee Swee Seng and Ravinthran Paramuguru.
Bias claims
Rosmah had filed her recusal application with a notice of urgency on Aug 30, 2022, just two days before Zaini was scheduled to deliver his verdict for her corruption case.
The application was filed following the leak of a document, allegedly written by the Kuala Lumpur High Court research unit regarding her solar case, in which she claimed there is a real danger of bias if Zaini did not recuse himself, and that she had lost faith in the judge following the leak.
The Palace of Justice’s registrar’s office had filed a police report over the alleged leak.
On Sept 1, Zaini dismissed her application, pointing out that the leaked documents were merely an opinion draft prepared by the unit, and that he never relied on any third-party opinion as he had always done his own research when writing his own judgment.
Later the same day, Zaini convicted Rosmah on all three graft charges and sentenced her to 10 years in jail and a RM970 million fine.
Rosmah then appealed against both the recusal and the case judgment.
The Court of Appeal had dismissed her appeal in the recusal case on Sept 17 last year. The Federal Court affirmed the dismissal on March 2 this year, leading to today’s proceeding.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal has fixed Sept 1 to hear Rosmah’s main appeal on her conviction and sentence. - Mkini
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