The court had also been scheduled to hear her appeal against the sentence and conviction handed down by Zaini following her trial last year.
A three-member bench chaired by Azizah Nawawi said the court was minded to grant the adjournment since this was Rosmah’s first application for a postponement.
“We are allowing the application as the grounds put forward go to the root of the appeal,” said Azizah, who sat with Justices Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and S Komathy.
Azizah also noted that the prosecution did not object to the adjournment.
Earlier, lawyer Jagjit Singh submitted that the adjournment was necessary as Rosmah had filed an application to the Federal Court for leave to commence judicial review proceedings to nullify the trial, claiming that the appointment of ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram was illegal.
Rosmah had on July 4, filed the leave application by posing six legal questions which she said merited a full hearing by the apex court.
One of the questions was whether Attorney-General (AG) Idrus Harun was entitled to backdate Sri Ram’s appointment to Nov 15, 2018, given that Idrus was only appointed AG in March 2020.
Today, Jagjit, assisted by Akberdin Abdul Kadir, told the bench that the motion has been fixed for case management in the Federal Court on Aug 4.
“This application is not made to delay the appeal,” he added.
Deputy public prosecutor K Mangai, who appeared for the prosecution, told the bench she was instructed not to object to the application.
On June 22, the Court of Appeal bench dismissed Rosmah’s appeal, saying the judicial review application to declare her trial a nullity should have been filed on or before May 21, 2021.
Rosmah’s application for an extension of time was also dismissed.
Rosmah filed her application in the High Court on June 24 last year shortly after a ruling by the Federal Court on May 27 that an aggrieved party seeking to challenge the appointment of a private lawyer as ad hoc prosecutor must do so by way of a civil, and not a criminal, motion.
An earlier appeal on Zaini’s refusal to disqualify himself from presiding the solar corruption case was scheduled to be heard between July 12 and 14. The appeal court was also scheduled to hear the substantive appeal to set aside her conviction and sentence on the same dates.
On Sept 1 last year, Zaini dismissed a last-minute application filed by Rosmah from presiding over the case.
Rosmah, 71, the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, had sought to disqualify Zaini after a purported draft of his judgment was published by fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.
She claimed the draft judgment was not prepared by Zaini, but by “third parties”, and that she had lost confidence in the judge deciding her case.
On the same day, Zaini convicted her of soliciting RM187.5 million from former Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin through her former aide, Rizal Mansor, as an inducement to help the company secure the solar project.
She was also convicted of receiving bribes amounting to RM5 million from Saidi, through Rizal, at Seri Perdana in Putrajaya on Dec 20, 2016, and another charge of receiving another RM1.5 million from Saidi at Jalan Langgak Duta on Sept 7, 2017.
Zaini sentenced her to 10-year jail terms for all three charges but ordered them to run concurrently.
The court said if Rosmah failed to pay the RM970 million fine, she will have to serve another 10 years in prison, after she completes her initial 10-year sentence.
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