KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 ― More than eight months after Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor was convicted by the High Court for corruption in connection with a solar hybrid project for rural schools in Sarawak, the former prime minister’s wife’s money laundering and tax evasion trial begins today.
Rosmah’s trial before High Court judge K. Muniandy is scheduled to run for 15 days, and the prosecution is expected to call up to 13 witnesses to testify.
However, it remains to be seen if her second criminal trial would proceed as planned as Rosmah has filed a representation bid to the Attorney General’s Chambers on May 2.
A representation is a bid by an accused to seek the charges against them to either be withdrawn or reduced.
If the trial does proceed pending the representation outcome, the prosecution is expected to address the court by reading out its opening statement.
She will be represented by lawyer Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent.
In this trial, Rosmah is facing 12 money laundering charges involving RM7,097,750, and five counts of failure to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board between December 4, 2013 to June 8, 2017.
Initially charged on October 4, 2018 at the Sessions Court, she has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Apart from May 12, the court also set June 28 and 30; July 6, 7, 27, 28 and 31; August 1, 2, 11, 24 and 25; and September 7 and 8, 2023 as trial dates.
On September 1 last year, Kuala Lumpur Court of Appeal judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan — then a High Court judge — found Rosmah guilty of three corruption charges involving RM1.25 billion in connection with a hybrid solar project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.
Rosmah, who is the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for each charge to be served concurrently which means she will only serve 10 years in jail. She was also fined RM970 million, in default 30 years in jail.
