Thursday hearing on bid to halt fresh evidence in Rosmah’s case

The Court of Appeal in Malaysia will hear the prosecution's request on Thursday to halt the recording of fresh evidence in Rosmah Mansor's appeal against her corruption conviction related to a RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project. The application will be heard by a three-member bench at 9am. This hearing follows a week after the Kuala Lumpur High Court set Thursday, September 17, as the date for Rosmah to record additional evidence from prosecution witness Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah.

Rosmah's legal team is expected to cross-examine Rayyan, followed by the prosecution re-examining him. The Court of Appeal had earlier fixed the stay application for hearing on Thursday after the High Court directed the recording of the extra evidence within two weeks of a case management held on September 10. The bench, comprising Justices Azhahari Kamal Ramli, Choo Kah Sing, and K Muniandy, also rescheduled Rosmah's appeal hearing to October 14-16 and October 19-23.

High Court judge Aslam Zainuddin was assigned to record the evidence and set September 17 for the proceedings. Rosmah, wife of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, was convicted on September 2, 2022, of soliciting RM187.5 million from former Jepak Holdings' managing director, Saidi Abang Samsudin, and receiving RM5 million from him.

She was sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined RM970 million, with an additional 10 years if she fails to pay the fine.