Rosmah’s highly anticipated corruption trial delayed as she is unwell.
Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor was absent from the Kuala Lumpur High Court on the scheduled first day of her first trial involving an alleged bribes-for-contract scandal, which was to be held on the same day as her husband and former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s ongoing corruption trial.
Rosmah, who will be turning 69 this year, did not show up as expected today for her trial that was scheduled to start at 2pm.
Her lawyer Jagjit Singh told High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan that Rosmah was unwell and her doctor had issued a medical certificate on Feb 2 which stated that she was unfit to attend court.
Lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram had however objected to the medical certificate being used to justify her absence in courtroom, arguing that he too was suffering from some of the medical conditions that Rosmah was said to have.
“The only problem I think is that I think she suffers from overdose of publicity,” he quipped, even suggesting that a warrant of arrest be issued to secure Rosmah’s attendance in court.
Najib was already present in the Kuala Lumpur court complex earlier this morning to resume his testimony in his own defence in the case involving RM42 million of former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) unit SRC International Sdn Bhd’s funds.
In her trial today, Rosmah would be facing three charges for both soliciting and accepting millions of ringgit in bribes in exchange for helping a company to secure a contract worth RM1.25 billion from the Education Ministry through direct negotiations.
The contract was for an integrated project for solar photovoltaic hybrid system and for the operation and maintenance of generators for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.
This is not the only case that Rosmah has, as she is also facing 17 counts of money-laundering charges in a separate case.
That case is scheduled to go on trial in May this year.