Judge who acquitted Najib also convicted Rosmah, ex-PM's daughter reminds sceptics

KUALA LUMPUR: There is no political element in the acquittal of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak involving his 1MDB audit report tampering charge, says his daughter Nooryana Najwa (pic).

The only daughter of Najib and Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor said that the trial judge Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan was the same person who had found her mother guilty of all three charges of soliciting and accepting bribes amounting to RM194mil in return for assisting a RM1.25bil government contract to supply energy to rural schools in Sarawak last year.

"The judge who made the decision was the same judge who sentenced my mother.

"When I heard the verdict, he made a decision based on facts, that is important and there is no political element," she said in an interview with Mingguan Malaysia, the weekend edition of Utusan Malaysia.

"Throughout this court process, my father was confident that he did nothing wrong. So if we see a judge acting fairly by using facts, I believe he can get total justice," said Nooryana, who is contesting for a Puteri Umno exco seat.

On Sept 1 last year, the Justice Mohamed Zaini convicted Rosmah of bribery and sentenced her to 10 years in jail and a record fine of RM970mil.

The fine is five times the bribe amount, the maximum allowable under Section 16 of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act with which Rosmah was charged.

Rosmah will have to serve an additional 10 years if she fails to pay the fine, but the sentence is on hold pending her appeal.

Justice Mohamed Zaini ruled last week that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case for Najib to answer in the removal of key information from the Auditor-General’s 2016 report on sovereign investment company 1MDB.

This means Najib, who was also the former finance minister, no longer has to face the charge under Section 23(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009.

Nooryana added that she was thankful for the "justice" received and recalled some supporters were overjoyed with the decision that they had told her, “Yana, Bossku is back”.

Yana is Nooryana’s nickname while Bossku is the moniker given to Najib.

“But I said no, he won in the 1MDB money report amendment case, so now we should give priority and focus on the SRC judgment case, which will be determined before the end of the month.

“Please pray that my father, Bossku, will get justice and come home to be with us,” she was quoted as saying.