KUALA LUMPUR: A prosecution witness in Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor's corruption trial was bombarded with all kinds of questions by her lawyer for two days in a row as the defence tried to pin the blame on her former aide for the mess she was in.
The witness, businessman Lawrence Tee Kien Moon, was accused of being manipulated by Rosmah's former aide Datuk Rizal Mansor by lawyer Datuk Jagjit Singh.
This happened even though Tee repeatedly denied knowing anything much about the dealings which Rizal was entangled in as he was only asked to prepare a consultancy agreement for a solar hybrid project for rural schools in Sarawak.
The 51-year-old consistently testified that all he knew was that Rizal had told him that a certain ma'am wanted the agreement to be prepared.
Tee said it was always in the back of his mind that the ma'am which Rizal referred to was Rosmah even though he did not verify the matter.
The 18th prosecution witness maintained that he took Rizal's word for it as the latter was Rosmah's Special Officer and there was no reason for him to doubt the fact.
Jagjit then continued to pounce on this and repeatedly tried to get his client distanced from Rizal's dealings with Tee and the latter's role in the whole affair of seeking bribes from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd, the company which was eventually given the contract.
The lawyer even shouted down Deputy Public Prosecutor Poh Yih Tinn twice when the latter stood up to protest that the witness was being asked the same questions over and again even though he had answered them.
Jagjit animatedly pointed his finger at Poh, walked towards the DPP while raising his voice asking the latter not to interrupt him.
Poh remained cool while he calmly addressed the judge to make his point.
At the end of the cross-examination, lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram - who was not in the courtroom when the exchange happened as he was attending the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial involving Datuk Seri Najib Razak, later walked in and took charge of the re-examination of the witness.
Despite all the tense moments earlier, Sri Ram nonchalantly informed Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan that he only had two questions for Tee.
Sri Ram: Your role in this case only involved drafting the consultancy agreement?
Tee: Yes
Sri Ram: Do you have any personal knowledge of the arrangements between Rizal and the others?
Tee: No
With that Sri Ram ended the re-examination and informed the judge that the prosecution would be calling their next witness tomorrow.
Rosmah is on trial for soliciting RM187.5 million and two counts of receiving bribes totalling RM6.5 million from Jepak Holdings managing director Saidi Abang Samsuddin.
The bribes were allegedly received through Rizal as a reward for helping Jepak Holdings secure the RM1.25 bllion solar hybrid project for 369 schools in the interior of Sarawak.
Rosmah was accused of committing the offences between January 2016 and Sept 2017. - NST
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