PUTRAJAYA: Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor has succeeded in her bid to adduce new evidence in the appeal against her conviction and sentence in the RM1.25bil solar hybrid project case.
A three-judge Court of Appeal panel chaired by Justice Azhahari Kamal Ramli unanimously allowed the application on grounds that it was meritorious.
Other judges on the panel were Justices Dr Choo Kah Sing and K. Muniandy.
Justice Choo, who read the decision, said it was not up to the appellate court to determine the truth behind the new evidence but whether the evidence was necessary in the case.
"And this (application) crosses the threshold," he said here on Tuesday (Sept 1).
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The panel then instructed the case to be remitted back to the High Court for hearing on the new evidence before a new judge while hearing of Rosmah's main appeal has been postponed to Oct 14.
The hearing at the High Court is now fixed for case management on Sept 10.
Earlier, the panel heard from Rosmah's lawyer Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad, who argued that key prosecution witness Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah had alleged prosecutorial pressure in his testimony during the trial.
The claims were made in a police report, a statutory declaration and a supporting affidavit which Rosmah sought to include as the new evidence.
Reading from the affirmed documents by the witness, Amer Hamzah said that Rayyan Radzwill claimed his witness statement did not give "the full picture" of what had transpired.
"Now that sentence itself is very important, very material, very pivotal because the witness is saying in the process of preparing the witness statement, not everything was put into it.
"Whatever facts, information, evidence, which we would like to adduce, were not included in the (existing) witness statement," Amer Hamzah added.
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Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Mohd Asnawi Abu Hanipah told the court that Rayyan was merely "trying to reconstruct the narrative" in the case.
He said Rayyan's timing in lodging a police report and affirming the affidavits was questionable as the lead prosecutor in the case, Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, had passed away in January 2023.
"Why did it take him (this much time) to say this? Is this evidence trustworthy?
"Looking at his self-serving statement, the court must be cautious," DPP Asnawi said.
On July 21, Rosmah filed the notice of motion seeking leave under Section 61 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 and Rules 68 and 69 of the Court of Appeal Rules 1994 for her to adduce three documents as additional evidence.
The three documents listed were a cover letter from Messrs Shamsuddin & Co dated July 10; a police report lodged by Rayyan Radzwill on July 10; and a statutory declaration affirmed by Rayyan Radzwill on July 10 along with all the attachments including an additional affidavit affirmed by the same person on Aug 3, 2020.
Rayyan Radzwill, who was a former consultant and business partner for Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd, was a key prosecution witness in the case.
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On Sept 1, 2022, the High Court convicted Rosmah of three charges under Section 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009.
She was found guilty of one charge of soliciting RM187.5mil and two charges of accepting bribes – RM1.5mil and RM5mil – from former managing director of Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd, Saidi Abang Samsudin.
The bribe was received through her former aide Datuk Rizal Mansor as a reward to help Jepak Holdings obtain the Integrated Solar Photovoltaic Hybrid System Project as well as genset/diesel maintenance and operations for 369 schools worth RM1.25bil through direct negotiation from the Education Ministry.
Rosmah was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for each charge and fined RM970mil, in default of 10 years’ imprisonment.
The Court of Appeal granted her a stay of execution pending the disposal of her appeal against the conviction and sentence.
The hearing for Rosmah’s appeal to set aside her conviction and sentence was initially fixed to begin today.
