Rosmah fails final bid to remove judge or get retrial, appellate court to hear solar bribery appeal over 10-year jail, RM970m fine
The Federal Court today unanimously dismissed Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s appeal, ruling that she had failed to show that there was a ‘real danger of bias’ by solar trial judge Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan. — File picture by Sayuti Zainudin
Tuesday, 03 Mar 2026 12:15 PM MYT
PUTRAJAYA, March 3 — Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor today failed in her last bid to recuse or remove the judge who found her guilty in her solar corruption case, which also means she has failed to get a retrial.
The Federal Court today unanimously dismissed Rosmah’s appeal, ruling that she had failed to show that there was a “real danger of bias” by solar trial judge Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan.
Today’s decision will clear the way for the Court of Appeal to finally proceed with hearing Rosmah’s appeal against her conviction and sentence of 10 years’ jail and a RM970 million fine in the solar bribery case.
Rosmah had been convicted at the High Court in September 2022, but her appeal against her conviction had been held back while waiting for the courts to decide on her bid to recuse the judge.
Rosmah who is now aged 74 has not served the 10-year jail term, as the High Court had allowed a stay of her sentence while she is still appealing her conviction.
Rosmah, better known as the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was present in the courtroom today for her appeal hearing after having had a five-day sick leave last week.
What the Federal Court decided today
Federal Court judge Datuk Nordin Hassan, who chaired the three-judge panel, today noted that there is a strong presumption of judges’ impartiality and that judges can only be recused or removed from trial if there was a “real danger of bias”.
“A judge’s impartiality and integrity is presumed the moment they take the oath of office,” he said when reading out the panel’s decision.
Nordin said Rosmah must show that there was a “real danger of bias” in order to remove Zaini from deciding on her corruption case.
“In recusal applications as in the present case against the trial judge, the appellant must establish the circumstances and situations under which the real danger of bias exists,” the judge said, referring to Rosmah as the appellant.
In order to decide whether there was a real danger of bias, the courts would look at the facts, as well as the principles and guidelines set out in past court cases on whether a judge had a “real danger of bias”, Nordin said.
Just two days before trial judge Zaini was scheduled to deliver his decision on whether Rosmah was guilty in the solar bribery case, she had filed an application to remove him from the case as she wanted the entire case to be heard again by a different High Court judge.
In this case, Rosmah’s main reason in her application to recuse the solar trial judge was that the High Court in Kuala Lumpur’s research unit’s “draft opinions” or purported “draft judgments” had existed before the judge delivered his decision on September 1, 2022.
Nordin said it was not disputed that those research unit documents existed, and that the only issue was whether trial judge Zaini had relied on those documents to prepare his decision.
Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s lead defence lawyer Datuk Jagjit Singh and his team are seen entering the Federal Court’s compound for the hearing of Rosmah’s appeal to recuse her solar trial judge and get a retrial. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
Rosmah previously failed at the High Court, and also at the Court of Appeal to recuse Zaini in order to get a retrial.
Today, the Federal Court noted that Zaini had in rejecting Rosmah’s recusal application already said he “did not rely” on the research unit’s draft opinions or draft judgments, and that Zaini had said he had instead prepared his own written judgment based on his own research and submissions by lawyers in the case.
The Federal Court noted that the Court of Appeal had compared the trial judge’s written judgment with the research unit’s draft opinion, and the Court of Appeal had found that there was difference between these two set of documents and concluded that Zaini had prepared his decision himself without relying on draft opinions or draft judgments prepared by third parties.
Nordin said the Federal Court “agreed” with the Court of Appeal’s finding.
The Federal Court said it had considered Rosmah’s lawyers’ arguments today especially their listing of seven grounds to show “real danger of bias” by Zaini.
But the Federal Court said it found that Rosmah’s lawyers’ submissions today “does not prove the existence of such real danger of bias”.
Although Rosmah’s lawyers today complained that Zaini did not allow the recusal application to be postponed at the High Court, the Federal Court said the trial judge’s decision not to postpone this should not be a reason to recuse or remove him from the case.
The Federal Court pointed out that Rosmah was heard for more than an hour at the High Court during her application to recuse the trial judge, with the Federal Court also ruling that the trial judge’s decision not to allow any postponements does not breach natural justice or Rosmah’s constitutional rights.
After the trial judge rejected Rosmah’s recusal bid at the High Court, the judge had went on to deliver his decision which found Rosmah guilty in the solar case.
The Federal Court today said it found that there was no procedural impropriety in Rosmah’s case, and that Zaini did not breach any code of ethics.
“We further find the trial judge in the present case did not violate the Judges’ Code of Ethics 2009, thus we find no appealable error in the present case warranting this court’s intervention. Thus the appeal is dismissed,” Nordin said in dismissing Rosmah’s bid to remove Zaini from her case.
The other two judges on the Federal Court’s panel today are Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Datuk Azimah Omar.
Earlier today, lawyers who argued for Rosmah to get a retrial are Datuk Jagjit Singh, Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader, Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, and Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad, while deputy public prosecutor Mohd Asnawi Abu Hanipah on behalf of the prosecution argued against Rosmah’s bid.
Tomorrow, the Court of Appeal is scheduled to have a case management for Rosmah’s appeal against her conviction and sentence in the solar corruption case.
The solar bribery case is Rosmah’s only criminal case in the courts now, as she had previously been acquitted in a separate case involving money laundering charges.
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In her heyday, Rosmah was so powerful it was frightening , to officers who were having to face what looked like improper directions..
ReplyDeleteRosmah was really Da Boss in the Najib household.
How the chickens are.coming home to roost.