Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor is pictured at the Kuala Lumpur High Court October 7, 2021. – Picture by Miera Zulyana
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — The Court of Appeal today ordered Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor to appear in court next Monday for a hearing of her bid to nullify her bribery trial and remove Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram as the lead prosecutor.
Datuk Hanipah Farikullah, who was chairing a three-judge panel at the Court of Appeal, reportedly said the panel has decided not to issue an arrest warrant for Rosmah over her failure to attend today’s court proceedings.
“The court is using its discretion to withhold the arrest warrant. Moreover, she (Rosmah) has never been absent from the High Court proceedings,” the judge was quoted as saying by news portal FreeMalaysiaToday (FMT).
Hanipah had said the panel also noted the explanation of Rosmah’s lawyer, Datuk Jagjit Singh, that her absence was due to his oversight, and that she will be given the opportunity to appear in the Court of Appeal on Monday at 9am.
According to FMT, Sri Ram had asked the Court of Appeal to issue a warrant of arrest and to revoke Rosmah’s bail, over her failure to comply with a High Court order dated October 15.
On October 15, the High Court had allowed Rosmah’s application for her passport to be temporarily released to her from October 15 until December 6 to allow her to travel to Singapore, but laid the strict conditions for Rosmah to only leave for Singapore from October 22 and stressing that she must return to Malaysia by November 21.
Rosmah is the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and had applied to go to Singapore where her daughter Nooryana Najwa lives in order to be there for the latter’s delivery of her second child.
On November 29, Nooryana Najwa posted a photo on Facebook showing her newborn child being held by Najib with Rosmah by his side.
MORE TO COME