THE Kuala Lumpur High Court in the Rosmah Mansor corruption trial today dismissed an application by the defence to prohibit the media from reporting certain paragraphs from a witness statement, which allegedly disparaged the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak.

Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan dismissed the application as he believes in the freedom of press.

“I believe in the freedom of press and I cannot stop them from reporting on the proceedings,” Zaini said.

The defence was trying to have Zaini bar the media from reporting certain paragraphs in the witness statement of Rosmah’s former aide, Rizal Mansor, which they deemed were prejudicial, opinionated, irrelevant and amounted to character assassination.

Rosmah’s lead defence counsel Jagjit Singh said some paragraphs were extremely prejudicial, while his co-counsel Akberdin Abdul Kader said that such matters should not be reported in the interest of justice.

Zaini said he was guided by law and told the defence counsels that there was no basis for him to stop the media from reporting the contents of Rizal’s witness statement.  

The judge also said if witness statements can be deemed prejudicial then the media would not be able to report them in other trials as well.

Lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram at this point said the witness was merely stating the instructions he received from the accused.

“This should be allowed as Rizal’s evidence only shows her disposition. In most corruption trials, the accused will be disparaged,” he said.

Zaini then ordered the witness to continue reading his statement.

Earlier today, before the proceedings began, the defence said some portions of Rizal’s statement were prejudicial to Rosmah and wanted the parts to be expunged.

Zaini said the defence could raise the issue of admissibility at the end of the prosecution’s case and that he will also decide at that time whether to accept Rizal’s testimony as evidence.

Rizal in his statement said he was attached to Media Prima before becoming a media officer for Rosmah in 2009 under a division called “First Lady of Malaysia” (FLOM), a special department dedicated to manage the affairs of the prime minister’s wife.

He served in the department until May 2018.

From his working experience with Rosmah, he said that the latter was capable, smart and a clever planner.

He said she always sought media attention for the activities she carried out.

He also said that in 2012, under Rosmah’s instructions, he had set up a team of cybertroopers to monitor social media contents that were critical of her.

“She is very concerned about her image, reputation and public perception of her status as the prime minister’s wife.

“In 2012, I set up a team of cybertroopers under Rosmah’s instructions to monitor any negative report on social media about her.

“She would give RM100,000 monthly to manage and sustain the team,” he said.

Among the negative reports that circulated were that she was in possession of expensive handbags, her lavish spending for her daughter’s wedding, individuals meeting Rosmah to secure government projects and that she was the “boss” to her husband and then prime minister Najib.

Rizal said among other confidential tasks given to him by Rosmah include collecting money on her behalf from individuals.

Rizal said, to his knowledge, many entrepreneurs and contractors will give Rosmah “gifts” after they have managed to secure government projects. He said the gifts included cash.

“Since these gifts were all on the basis of ‘political contributions’, I never thought it would be a mistake for me to accept them on her behalf,” he said.

Besides this, Rizal also said Rosmah had great influence in the government’s administration and that government agencies and officials would feel reluctant to reject her requests.

He said civil servants feared Rosmah because she was fierce and could influence the decision of the prime minister.

“She would transfer or put them in cold storage if they refused to accede to her request,” he said.

Rosmah, 69, faces three corruption charges, one of which is for soliciting RM187.5 million from Jepak Holdings managing director Saidi Abang Samsuddin as inducement to help the company secure the solar hybrid project in Sarawak.

She is also accused of receiving bribes totalling RM6.5 million from Saidi in 2016 and 2017.

Early this year, the prosecution withdrew the charges against Rizal for soliciting and receiving bribes for himself and Rosmah. – September 9, 2020.