Judge rejected prosecution’s request to postpone the trial.
A bank officer told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that a sum of RM1.09mil was deposited into Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s personal current account at Affin Bank Berhad through several transactions between October 2014 and June 2017.
Affin Bank Berhad’s ATM (Automated Teller Machine) Services and Support assistant manager Nor Ashikin Abdullah, 58, who confirmed the matter, said the money was deposited into Rosmah’s account through cash deposit machines (CDM) at several Affin Bank branches, including Bangunan Getah Asli in Bangsar and Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) in Kuala Lumpur.
She also told the court that in November 2018, she received a request from the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA/CFT) Unit of the bank to obtain information regarding records of cash deposit transactions using the CDM for Rosmah’s account.
She said she retrieved the information and handed it over to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officials.
The first prosecution witness was reading her witness statement on the first day of the trial of Rosmah, who has been charged with 12 counts of money laundering involving RM7,097,750 and five charges of failing to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN).
Meanwhile, the second prosecution witness, a former official at the Seri Perdana Complex, told the court that he once helped his superior, Roslan Sohari (residential manager of the Seri Perdana Complex), deposit cash into the same bank account belonging to Rosmah.
Faizal Shamsuddin, 48, said he had received instructions to deposit the money from Roslan, and the latter had handed him an envelope containing RM200,000 in cash, whereby Rosmah’s bank account number was written on the envelope.
Earlier, before the commencement of the trial, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib had asked the court to postpone yesterday’s proceedings as they needed time to consider a representation letter dated Aug 18 from Rosmah’s solicitors.
However, Justice K Muniandy rejected the prosecution’s request and ordered the trial to proceed on the grounds that the charges against Rosmah were filed in 2018.
Meanwhile, one of Rosmah’s lawyers, Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, informed the court that the defence would file an application to strike out all the charges that were filed against his client on or before Sept 7.
The judge set Sept 7 and 8 for the continuation of the trial.
Rosmah, 71, is facing 12 money laundering charges involving RM7,097,750, and five counts of failure to declare her income to the LHDN.
Meanwhile, in Putrajaya, the Federal Court has fixed Nov 29 to hear Rosmah’s application for leave to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal, which dismissed her attempt to nullify her solar hybrid trial via a judicial review process.
On July 22 this year, the Court of Appeal dismissed Rosmah’s appeal on grounds that her appeal had no merit.
On Sept 1, 2022, High Court judge Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan (now Court of Appeal judge) found Rosmah guilty of the corruption charges in the solar hybrid trial and sentenced her to 10 years in jail and fined her RM970mil.
She has filed an appeal against her conviction and sentence and is currently out on an RM2mil bail pending her appeal at the Court of Appeal.