KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here today acquitted and discharged Datuk Rizal Mansor, who is a former special officer to former Prime Minister Seri Najib Abdul Razak, on four charges of soliciting and receiving bribes on behalf of Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor over a solar hybrid project for rural schools in Sarawak.
Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan made the ruling after Senior Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram informed the court that the prosecution was withdrawing all the charges against Rizal, 45.
Following which, Rizal was ordered to leave the dock, where he was seated with Rosmah.
Sri Ram also told the court that the prosecution was supposed to hand over the witness statements to the defence last June, but was only able to do so today.
Prior to this this, the court had allowed the prosecution's application for a joint trial of the graft cases involving Rizal, represented by lawyer Ridha Abdah Subri, and Rosmah.
Lawyer Datuk Jagjit Singh, representing Rosmah, then requested the hearing dates, which had been fixed next month and in March to be vacated, to give enough time for the defence to examine the witness statement.
“We are shocked with this decision (Rizal’s acquittal and discharge) and have to re-organise all our defense strategies and to examine the witness statements,” he added.
However, Mohamed Zaini rejected the application and maintained Feb 3 to begin the trial.
On May 30 last year, Mohamed Zaini fixed 32 days to hear the solar case involving Rosmah and Rizal,
The dates are from Feb 3 to 6, Feb 10-13, Feb 7-20, March 9-12, April 6-9, April 13-16, April 20-23 and April 27-30 this year.
Meanwhile, outside the court, Rosmah, when approached by reporters and asked on the release of recorded conversations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today, she said,”the matter will be addressed by my lawyers”.
On May 10 last year, Rosmah pleaded not guilty to a charge of having received gratification of RM5 million from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin, 60, through Rizal.
She was allegedly given the money for assisting Jepak Holdings to obtain a solar hybrid project for 396 rural schools in Sarawak through direct negotiations with the Education Ministry.
The offence was allegedly committed at her home in Jalan Langgak Duta, Taman Duta here, on Dec 20, 2016. — Bernama
