DATIN Seri Rosmah Mansor has been sentenced to an RM970 mil fine for all three charges in her RM1.25 bil solar power corruption case and 10 years in jail for each charge, to be run concurrently.
If she fails to pay the fine, Rosmah faces an extra 10 years in jail on top of the 10-year-sentence.
Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan handed down the ruling after considering mitigating arguments from the defence and prosecution and a brief stand down in court.
However, Rosmah is not going to jail today (Sept 1) as the judge allowed the defence’s application to suspend the prison sentence and payment of the fine pending the disposal of her appeal of his binned recusal bid.
Bail is also still set at RM2 mil.
Zaini had earlier found Rosmah guilty of all three charges — one count of soliciting RM187.5 mil and two counts of receiving bribes totalling RM6.5 mil from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin.
The bribes were allegedly received through her former aide Datuk Rizal Mansor as a reward for helping Jepak Holdings to secure the Hybrid Photovoltaic Solar System Integrated project as well as the maintenance and operation of diesel generator sets for 369 Sarawak rural schools worth RM1.25 bil from the Education Ministry through direct negotiations.
Zaini also rejected the defence’s bid to recuse himself over a purported “leaked judgment” over the case (actually an opinion write-up by the court’s research unit), saying he had never even seen the document and that he writes his own verdicts.
Rosmah was charged in 2018. In February 2021, she was ordered to enter her defence on the three charges after the prosecution succeeded in proving a prima facie case against her.
“Maximum or near maximum sentence”
Earlier, the prosecution submitted that the maximum or near-maximum imprisonment sentence should be meted out to Rosmah considering the gratitude of the offences.
Senior deputy public prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram noted that each of the three charges carries a penalty of maximum jail of 20 years each and a fine of five times the gratification, Malaysiakini reported.
This meant that Rosmah should pay RM973 mil for all three charges, and if she defaults, she should be imprisoned for 10 to 20 years concurrently.
“The purpose of sentencing is to send a message and stop them dead in their tracks as corruption is the vilest disease that can attack society,” he said, The Vibes reported.
Upon hearing this, Rosmah reportedly muttered in court: “Might as well kill me.”
Gopal added that Zaini had no say over the amount as the law says the fine “ought not to be less than five times the amount of the crime”.
The former Federal Court judge also said the prosecution had no objection to the payment of the fine being suspended until the disposal of the appeal, as the prosecution had requested.
“I am the victim here”
Meanwhile, shortly after the guilty verdict was read out, Rosmah, in tears, read out a statement from the dock, stating she accepted the verdict and wanted to leave the courtroom with “good memories”.
Speaking off the cuff, she said she is a “victim” in the solar project graft case and has not taken a single sen from the project for herself.
She added that she has never influenced her husband Datuk Seri Najib Razak and alleged that after the former prime minister was sentenced to jail over his SRC International RM42 mil corruption case, the court now wants the duo to “suffer”.
Rosmah claimed that if it “may happen to me now, it can happen to all of you in the future. Your children, your grandchildren.”
She also appealed to the court to have “compassion” in its sentencing as she is a woman and now the “man of the house” following Najib’s jailing.
Her lawyer then asked for a one-day prison sentence for Rosmah and the lowest value of a fine provided for under the law, which the prosecution opposed. – Sept 1, 2022
