The former prime minister’s court appearance has been brought forward as another witness, ex-special officer to Najib, Siti Azizah Sheikh Abod, will be away to perform the umrah when the trial resumes for four days in January.
Najib is one of the 10 prosecution witnesses offered to the defence at the close of its case last year.
Siti, the second witness, today took the stand and only read 13 of the 60-page witness statement before the proceedings were adjourned around noon.
Trial judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said he was using his discretion under Section 402B (6) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) that Siti was deemed to have read the entire statement after signing on the document.
She will return to take the stand on Feb 4 to be cross-examined by the prosecution and re-examined by Rosmah’s lawyers.
Zaini said he was using that option, which is also sanctioned by a Federal Court ruling, as he did not want to add more trial dates as counsel from both sides were busy with other cases.
Lawyer Akberdin Abdul Kader then urged Zaini to reconsider his decision as all prosecution witnesses read their entire statements in court.
“I am exercising my discretion under the CPC and also following a Federal Court ruling.
“I have also gone through Siti’s statement twice before she read it in court. I will read her statement again,” Zaini said as he wished an advance Happy New Year to all in court before the proceedings came to an end.
Earlier, Siti said as special officer to Najib, she had to, among others, supervise the programmes of the former prime minister that included the activities of Rosmah.
“To my knowledge, there is only one special officer to Najib and no other appointment is made to cater for Rosmah,” she said.
Prosecution witness Rizal Mansor had said he was appointed special officer to handle Rosmah’s affairs that included the social and traditional media.
Siti said she suggested that an unnamed division in the Prime Minister’s Department be rebranded as the First Lady of Malaysia (FLOM) division after Najib became prime minister in 2009. It was then accepted.
“A new division was not created. It was a continuation of the previous unnamed entity,” she said.
Rosmah, who was reexamined by Akberdin before Siti gave evidence, told the court today that the wives of four previous prime ministers were identified as FLOM.
They included her late mother-in-law, Rahah Mohamed Noah, the spouse of the second prime minister Razak Hussein, who was Najib’s father.
The next was Suhaila Mohamed Noah, the wife of the third prime minister, Hussein Onn; Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, the wife of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was the fourth and seventh prime minister.
Another was the late Endon Mahmood Ambak, the wife of the fifth prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Rosmah is accused of soliciting RM187.5 million from former Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin, through her former aide Rizal, as an inducement to help the company secure a solar project for rural schools in Sarawak.
She is also accused of receiving bribes amounting to RM5 million from Saidi through Rizal at Seri Perdana in Putrajaya on Dec 20, 2016. Rosmah is said to have received another RM1.5 million from Saidi at Jalan Langgak Duta here on Sept 7, 2017.