Rosmah, wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, had asked the apex court to disqualify trial judge Zaini Mazlan and set aside the conviction and sentence imposed on her three years ago.
Justice Nordin Hassan, who led a three-member bench, said there was no real risk of bias to justify his and Justice Ruzima Ghazali’s recusals.
“We have a responsibility to dispose of appeals cases,” he added.
At the outset of today’s proceedings, lead defence counsel Jagjit Singh informed the court that his client was uncomfortable with the presence of Nordin and Ruzima on the bench, as both had heard an appeal connected to the case.
Both judges previously sat to dismiss Rosmah’s appeal to disqualify lawyer Gopal Sri Ram, who served as ad hoc prosecutor in the case prior to his passing in January 2023.
Nordin said Jagjit, as a senior lawyer, should have advised his client that the application had no basis.
Jagjit then sought an adjournment, saying Rosmah, 74, had been granted sick leave from Tuesday to Saturday this week after suffering injuries to her knees and right shoulder while at home two days ago.
Deputy public prosecutor K Mangai, assisted by deputy public prosecutors Ng Siew Wee and P Sarulatha, did not object to the postponement.
Nordin then fixed the hearing for March 3, overruling Jagjit’s request for a different hearing date due to the defence lawyers’ unavailability.
“This is a public interest and a priority case that has been pending for too long. We want to finish this matter as soon as possible,” he said.
Also on the panel hearing the appeal was Justice Azimah Omar.
Appearing with Jagjit on the defence team were lawyers Akberdin Abdul Kader, Firuz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin and Amer Hamzah Arshad.
Last year, the Court of Appeal dismissed Rosmah’s appeal and upheld Zaini’s decision that there was no valid reason to recuse himself from continuing to hear the case.
On Sept 1, 2022, Zaini, now a Court of Appeal judge, dismissed a last-minute application by Rosmah to stop him from presiding over her case.
The disqualification was sought as Rosmah claimed to have lost confidence in Zaini after a purported draft of his judgment was published by the late blogger, Raja Petra Kamarudin, prior to the decision date.
Zaini went on to convict Rosmah 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 RM1.5 million from Saidi at Jalan Langgak Duta on Sept 7, 2017.
Zaini sentenced her to 10-year jail terms for each of the three charges but ordered for them to run concurrently. He also ordered her to pay a RM970 million fine.
The court ruled that Rosmah would serve another 10 years in prison after her initial sentence if she failed to pay the fine.