KUALA Lumpur High Court judge Mohammed Zaini Mazlan has reprimanded Rosmah Mansor’s defence team for requesting an adjournment today, to allow its filing as it bids to disqualify him from presiding over the trial. 

As the defence filed a certificate of urgency together with the application on August 30 to expedite the hearing, Zaini said he was ready to do so. 

However, he was not pleased when lead defence lawyer Jagjit Singh requested an adjournment for the hearing.

“When you filed this application, you also filed a certificate of urgency. 

“So, I asked my officers to fix it for today itself, irrespective of whether I was due to deliver a decision on the trial. 

“Having filed the certificate of urgency, you should be ready. 

“I’m hearing this today,” Zaini said.

Earlier, lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram – referring to a counter affidavit filed by the prosecution – argued that the defence filing should be dismissed. 

He said the filing was made in bad faith, was an abuse of court process and based on hearsay in the media.

“The applicant has not produced any credible and cogent evidence to support her accusations of bias and judicial impropriety against the learned judge.

“In fact, there is nothing in her application which proves or substantiates her accusation. 

“The application as a whole is speculative and fanciful in nature. 

“Absence of cogent and credible grounds in the application goes to show that the application is nothing more than an attempt to prevent the case from being judged on merits,” Sri Ram said. 

The former Federal Court judge also said that the leaked “judgment” referred to by the defence is not a “written judgement” but research prepared by the Research Unit of Kuala Lumpur High Court. 

However, Zaini then turned to Jagjit and told him that he is ready to put aside the prosecution’s affidavit so as not to handicap the defence.

“I have read it, there is no need for you to rebut any facts there.

“Don’t you think that the facts alleged in your affidavit are something within my personal knowledge?

“It pertained to an alleged judgment of mine written by a third party. I think I’ll be the only one that will be able to answer that question,” he said.

Jagjit then said that his team would need at least 48 hours to submit in writing but Zaini stopped him, adding that he would only adjourn for 30 minutes.

On Tuesday, Rosmah’s lawyer filed a last-minute application to recuse Zaini through Messrs Akberdin & Co.

In the application sighted by The Malaysian Insight, Rosmah is seeking to recuse Zaini over a document leaked to the press, which supposedly contains Zaini’s written judgment in the case.

He was initially set to deliver his verdict on the solar hybrid corruption trial today morning. 

On February 18, 2021, Rosmah, 70, was ordered to enter her defence on the three charges after the prosecution succeeded in proving there was a case against her.

She was charged with soliciting RM188 million in gratification and two counts of receiving bribes totalling RM6.5 million from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd former managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin.

The bribes were allegedly received through her former aide Rizal Mansor, as a reward for helping Jepak Holdings to secure the Hybrid Photovoltaic Solar System Integrated Project, as well as the maintenance and operation of diesel generator sets for 369 Sarawak rural schools worth RM1.25 billion from the Education Ministry through direct negotiation.

If found guilty, Rosmah could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined five times the amount received or solicited under section 24(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption (MACC) Act 2009. – September 1, 2022.