Rosmah cites 127 grounds in solar corruption appeal By Hidir Reduan Abdul Rashid

Malaysiakini : Rosmah Mansor has prepared 127 reasons in her appeal to set aside her conviction as well as the 10-year jail sentence and RM970 million fine in a corruption case linked to the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid energy project.

Among the grounds cited are that she had no power to approve any government projects as she was merely the wife of then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and that trial judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan was biased against her. These reasons are contained in Rosmah’s petition of appeal filed at the Court of Appeal yesterday by her lawyers from the law firm Akberdin and Co.

She is appealing against the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision on Sept 1 in relation to three graft charges involving the project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.  In a copy of the appeal petition made available to the media, Rosmah repeated the defence’s contention that the real mastermind behind the crime was actually her former aide, Rizal Mansor.

Initially charged along with her in the case, the prosecutors later dropped the case against Rizal and he became the 21st prosecution witness (SP21) against her.

Rizal Mansor

Rosmah claimed that Zaini had erred and misdirected himself on the point of fact in his judgment as she contended all negotiations, meetings and preparation of the proposal letter for the project were prepared by Saidi Abang Samsudin and Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah, with the purported involvement of Rizal as the “mastermind”.

The seventeenth prosecution witness Saidi was the managing director of Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd, the company which was awarded the project, while 16th prosecution witness Rayyan used to be Saidi’s business partner.

Knucklehead : Lawyers has been busy, lets see if it holds. At lease better then the showpiece lawyers for Najib's appeal, who thought they were god and coming to court to tell them what to do! LOL!

Read it all here, subscription required............