Lawyer Akberdin Abdul Kader said the date was fixed after a case management this evening before a deputy registrar.

On Sept 1, 2022, trial judge Zaini Mazlan, now a Court of Appeal judge, dismissed a last-minute application by Rosmah to stop him from presiding over her case.

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.

She then went to the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court, but failed to get him recused.

On March 3, a three-member Federal Court bench chaired by Justice Nordin Hassan unanimously rejected Rosmah’s appeal, ruling that trial judge Zaini was not biased and that Rosmah did not suffer any miscarriage of justice.

Justices Che Ruzima Ghazali and Azimah Omar also sat on the bench.

Rosmah is seeking a review of the Federal Court’s decision, arguing that it erred in finding that trial judge Zaini was not in real danger of bias when there existed two judgments.

The application was made under Rule 137 of the Federal Court Rules 1995, invoking the Federal Court’s inherent power to review prior decisions to prevent injustice or abuse of process.

Rosmah, the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, had sought a retrial if her appeal was allowed.

Akberdin, who appeared with lawyer Jagjit Singh, said he would also be writing to the Court of Appeal to reschedule Rosmah’s appeal hearing against conviction and sentence.

Deputy public prosecutor Afzainizam Abdul Aziz, who appeared for the prosecution, confirmed the matter.

On March 16, Justice Nadzarin Wok Nordin, who also conducted a case management, fixed three days from July 1 to hear the appeal.

On Sept 2, 2022, Zaini convicted 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 that they run concurrently. He also ordered her to pay a RM970 million fine.

The court ruled that Rosmah should serve an additional 10 years in prison if she failed to pay the fine.