ROSMAH Mansor once again failed in her bid to oust Gopal Sri Ram from leading the prosecution team in the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid corruption trial.

Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid today dismissed Rosmah’s leave application for judicial review.

Rosmah, the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, who is serving time in Kajang Prison, filed the application on June 24, where she challenged Sri Ram’s appointment based on letter or “fiats”.

Through this application, Rosmah had sought a declaration to nullify her solar hybrid trial, and a stay order for the solar proceedings until the disposal of the judicial review.

With the denial of leave to proceed, the civil court will not hear the merits of Rosmah’s judicial review seeking to remove Sri Ram.

In judicial review cases, leave or permission has to be granted for merits of the case to be heard.

Given the dismissal and no stay order granted, the verdict of Rosmah’s solar hybrid graft trial will proceed as scheduled on Thursday.

Trial judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan is set to rule on this case.

Last year, Rosmah had filed a similar application to recuse Sri Ram but was dismissed by the criminal High Court and her appeal against the court ruling was rejected by the Court of Appeal and subsequently the Federal Court.

In her latest application, Rosmah sought to declare as unlawful the appointment of Sri Ram as senior deputy public prosecutor through three letters of appointment (fiat), dated July 8, 2020, May 11 and May 21, 2021 respectively.

She sought to declare that the first version of the fiat signed by Attorney-General Idrus Harun on July 8, 2020, which should have been signed by the previous AG, Tommy Thomas on or before November 15, 2018 – the date of prosecution against the applicant, was invalid.

In addition, she sought to declare that the second version of the fiat dated May 11, 2021 was non-existent, as Thomas in his book My Story: Justice in the Wilderness, published last year, stated that Sri Ram’s appointment was related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd and not her solar corruption trial, other than to declare that the appointment of the former Federal Court judge through the third version of the fiat was defective.

Rosmah, 70, faces three corruption charges, one of which is for soliciting RM187.5 million as inducement to help a company secure a RM1.25 billion contract to equip 369 rural schools in Sarawak with solar energy.

She is also accused of receiving bribes totalling RM6.5 million in 2016 and 2017. – August 30, 2022.