PUTRAJAYA: Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor has failed in her final bid to recuse the trial judge, Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, from presiding over her graft case.
The Federal Court here unanimously dismissed Rosmah's appeal on grounds that there was no appealable error that warranted the apex court's intervention.
Justice Mohamed Zaini had convicted Rosmah in her graft trial involving a RM1.25bil solar hybrid project in Sarawak.
A three-judge panel, chaired by Justice Nordin Hassan, also found that Justice Mohamed Zaini, who is now a Court of Appeal judge, did not violate the Judges Code of Ethics following the controversy of a leaked draft judgment that was prepared by the Kuala Lumpur High Court's research unit prior to him delivering his decision in Rosmah's case on Sept 1, 2022.
Rosmah made the 11th hour application to recuse Justice Mohamed Zaini after the leak, citing allegations that the draft was prepared by a third party and leaked before its official delivery.
Her application was shot down by the judge who convicted and sentenced her on the same day.
She later appealed the dismissal at the Court of Appeal, which upheld the dismissal.
In the decision here on Tuesday (March 3), Justice Nordin said that while the existence of the draft judgment was undisputed, the learned trial judge stated in his grounds for dismissal that he did not rely on the draft.
"Instead, he prepared his grounds of judgment based on his own research and submissions by parties in the case," Justice Nordin said.
The Federal Court also noted that the Court of Appeal had perused the draft judgment by the research unit and the grounds of judgment in the trial and found there was a difference between the two.
"The Court of Appeal concluded that the trial judge had prepared himself the grounds of judgment without relying on the draft.
"We have also considered the submissions by the applicant and found that it did not prove the existence of real danger of bias.
"The appeal is dismissed," Justice Nordin added.
Two other judges who sat on the panel were Justices Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Azimah Omar.
Meanwhile, Rosmah's lawyer Datuk Jagjit Singh told reporters that they would be taking instructions from their client on whether to file a review of the Federal Court's decision.
His co-counsel Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader said that the defence would be focusing on Rosmah's main appeal against her conviction and sentence.
"We do not have a hearing date yet but a case management is coming up tomorrow," Akberdin said.
Rosmah was charged with one count of soliciting RM187.5mil and two counts of receiving RM6.5mil in bribes from former Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin, all linked to the solar hybrid project.
She was granted a stay of execution on the sentences pending her appeal against her conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal.
