Rosmah fails to challenge Sri Ram's appointment as DPP

Rosmah Mansor has failed in her bid for Federal Court leave to appeal against the validity of the appointment of the late Gopal Sri Ram as lead prosecutor in her RM1.25 billion solar hybrid energy project.

A three-person bench chaired by Court of Appeal president Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim unanimously dismissed the appeal leave application by the wife of incarcerated former premier Najib Abdul Razak this morning.

Speaking on behalf of fellow bench members Nordin Hassan and Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, Abang Iskandar ruled that there is no novel issue of law that merits further ventilation before the apex court.

The Federal bench then dismissed Rosmah's appeal leave application for failing to cross the threshold of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, ordering her to pay RM30,000 in costs to the two respondents in the matter, namely the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) and the federal government.

For appeals arising from civil court challenges such as Rosmah's matter today, Section 96 states that leave to appeal can only be granted if the appeal involves novel issues of law that would be of public importance to be further heard by the apex court.

Rosmah is appealing against the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision two years ago that denied her leave to proceed with judicial review targeting the validity of the DPP appointment of the former federal court judge.

The Court of Appeal upheld this last year.

Rosmah has a pending separate appeal before the Court of Appeal to reverse her guilty verdict and sentence of 10 years imprisonment and RM970 million fine over the criminal corruption case linked to the project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.

The appellate court has set April 23 for mention of her criminal appeal.

Six questions of law

According to a copy of the cause papers, Rosmah put forward six questions of law for the court to consider in her judicial review appeal.

Among them include whether then attorney-general Idrus Harun was empowered by law to issue a letter of appointment - dated May 21, 2021 – for Sri Ram to be senior deputy prosecutor for her graft case, which was to take effect Nov 15, 2018.

Rosmah’s legal team contended that this was an issue as Idrus was only appointed AG in 2021.

Idrus stepped down late last year, with the AG post now held by Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh.

Sri Ram passed away at the age of 79 in January last year. - Mkini