Rosmah Is Guilty Key Takeaways From Judge S Verdict

---

Yesterday, judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan of the High Court in Kuala Lumpur convicted former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's wife Rosmah Mansor.
She was found guilty of soliciting RM187 million in inducements from Saidi Abang Samsudin to assist his attempt to secure an RM1.25 billion solar power and diesel generator project for 369 schools in rural Sarawak.
Rosmah was also found guilty of receiving RM6.5 million in cash from Saidi, who is a former managing director of Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd, as a form of inducement in relation to the same project.
Zaini sentenced Rosmah to 10 years in jail and ordered her to pay a fine of RM970 million (more than five times the amount solicited and received). Failure to repay would result in an additional 30 years in jail.
Following the sentence, the court released the "broad grounds" of Zaini's judgment. Below is a summary of the key issues raised by the judge.
Tainted characters
Three prosecution witnesses were central to the trial. The star witness was Rizal Mansor, who was at the material time Rosmah's aide.
Rizal was found to have solicited the bribe on Rosmah's behalf from two other key witnesses - Saidi and Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah.
Saidi is the founder of Jepak Holdings. He and Rayyan are business partners, although the latter had no interest in Jepak Holdings.
The judge noted that both Rizal and Saidi's “characters were tainted”. This was because Saidi initiated the bribe while Rizal openly admitted he received gratification from the former.
“That Rizal and Saidi's characters are tainted does not mean that their evidence is to be totally rejected.
“A bad character is still capable of telling the truth, but it is the degree of truth that matters,” said the judge.
Rosmah dominates Najib
Among the evidence presented by the prosecution was an audio recording which appeared to depict an irate Rosmah saying "can I advise you something?" to Najib.
The judge noted that in Rosmah's witness statement, she never "assertively stated" that the voices in the audio recording were not of her and Najib.
Instead, Rosmah had attempted to downplay the conversation in the recording to a typical discussion between husband and wife.
"It, however, was no ordinary conversation between spouses, for it was about government affairs.
"It is clear from the audio recording that the accused gave instructions to Najib on government affairs.
"Her tone was commanding and contrary to her contention that she heeded Najib's prohibition on not meddling in government affairs.
"I say this with the greatest of respect, but it is apparent that the accused dominates Najib. She has control over him.
"She has no business interfering in Najib's duties or the government's affairs, but she did," said the judge.
11 minutes penned by Najib
The prosecution suggested that Rosmah's husband Najib, as prime minister then, penned 11 minutes on letters from Jepak which were eventually used to secure the solar project.
For instance, Najib had, in 2015, written the words "Bersetuju dilaksanakan sistem baru ini dan batalkan sistem lama" (Agree to execute this new system and terminate the previous system) on Jepak's project proposal.
This tactic would be repeated by Saidi several more times to compel then education minister Mahdzir Khalid to greenlight Jepak Holding's proposal for the project.
Rosmah Mansor with Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd’s managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin.Although Najib was not a central figure in the trial, the issue was whether he stood to benefit from a “political donation” mooted by Saidi and Rayyan during their first meeting with Rosmah in 2016.
The judge said the circumstances in which the money was offered, given and received defied it being in the nature of a political donation.
“First of all, the fact that the amount promised is a percentage of the project's value meant that the payment was for the accused's benefit. A bona fide donation is usually for a fixed sum.
“Secondly, the surreptitious manner that the payments were made. The two payments made were in cash in large sums and delivered to the accused alone at her residence.
“Najib, being the president of Umno (then), was never present when the cash was delivered on both occasions, which is highly odd considering the so-called donation was meant for the party,” Zaini said.
The butler did it... not
A key contention raised by the defence team was that the prosecution should have called Rosmah's butlers to substantiate the testimony of other witnesses.
The court was told that butlers had carted two bags of money amounting to RM5 million meant for Rosmah after they were delivered by Rizal to Seri Perdana on Dec 20, 2016.
Seri Perdana in Putrajaya is the official residence of the prime minister of Malaysia.
Rizal also testified that he instructed the butlers to bring two knapsacks with RM1.5 million to Rosmah's rooms at her residence in Kuala Lumpur on Sept 7, 2017.
In both instances, the judge said the butlers' testimony was not necessary as the testimonies from others were sufficient.
“After all, it was not 'the butlers who did it',” said the judge.
Hearing delayed by Covid-19
Although the trial kicked off on Feb 5, 2020, and concluded on Feb 23, 2022, there were only 42 hearing days in total.
The judge noted that the trial would have concluded sooner if not for movement restrictions and delays due to lawyers and witnesses being infected by Covid-19.
“Fortunately, everyone was in good health in the end,” said the judge. - Mkini

---