KUALA LUMPUR: A former aide to Rosmah Mansor had disciplinary problems but he was not useless, the corruption trial of the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak was told today.
Siti Azizah Sheikh Abod, a former special officer to Najib, told the High Court that Rizal Mansor was promoted twice and had his contract renewed six times from 2011 to 2018.
Siti Azizah, the second and last defence witness, was also Rizal’s immediate boss. She had been appointed to head the First Lady of Malaysia (FLOM) division in the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) when Najib was leading the Cabinet.
She said Rizal, who was previously with a private media company, had been appointed to handle media affairs for Rosmah.
However, Siti Azizah said she had received complaints about Rizal making “disappearing acts” and that he was not always present at his office in Putrajaya.
“I did not take disciplinary action as we are mature adults. I only advised him to become self-disciplined,” she said when cross-examined by ad-hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram.
Rosmah, in her defence, had said Rizal was an incompetent employee as he could not do a good job of writing her speech texts and that he had disciplinary issues as well, being frequently “missing in action”.
Sri Ram: Do you agree with that statement by the accused (Rosmah)?
Siti Azizah: I do.
Sri Ram then referred Siti Azizah to a summary of Rizal’s service records while in the PMD.
He was employed from May 1, 2009 until June 30, 2018 and his contract was extended six times. Rizal was also promoted twice, with the last position being “senior assistant director” in grade N52.
Sri Ram: Do you agree that an officer will not be upgraded if he is not good?
Siti Azizah: Actually, after sometime the upgrade will be automatic.
Sri Ram: Can Rizal be promoted if he was a useless worker?
Siti Azizah: I disagree he was useless as he had a good relationship with the media.
Siti Azizah, 72, said due to Rizal’s incompetency she had to personally write Rosmah’s speech texts.
She said Rizal had told her the reason he was not in Putrajaya was that he was in Kuala Lumpur to meet media members.
“He is not useless. One must give a chance to a contract employee and that is my style of leadership,” she said.
With reference to three media reports between 2016 and 2018 shown by Sri Ram to Siti Azizah, she agreed with the prosecutor that Rizal had issued those statements on his own to defend Rosmah.
“He did it unilaterally and without getting approval from Najib’s press secretary Tengku Sharifuddin (Tengku Ahmad),” she said.
In the articles, Rizal attacked the DAP-led government in Penang over multimillion ringgit projects, defending Rosmah’s alleged extravagance and Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s attack against her for allegedly spending RM86 million to hire a private jet for her overseas visits.
Rosmah is accused of soliciting RM187.5 million from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin through Rizal, as an inducement to help the company secure the solar project for rural schools in Sarawak.
She is also accused of receiving bribes amounting to RM5 million from Saidi, through Rizal, at Seri Perdana in Putrajaya on Dec 20, 2016. Rosmah is said to have received another RM1.5 million from Saidi at Jalan Langgak Duta here on Sept 7, 2017.
Rosmah’s lead counsel Jagjit Singh today informed trial judge Zaini Mazlan that the defence was closing its case.
Zaini then instructed the prosecution to file its written submissions by March 9 and the defence by March 30, while April 5 was fixed for oral submissions. - FMT
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