Rosmah, the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, was seen sitting in the public gallery at the Court of Appeal with her aides and supporters this morning.

However, when proceedings began, her lead counsel Jagjit Singh informed the court that his client had left the Palace of Justice to seek medical treatment.

“She was present but she had to be rushed to the hospital. She is diabetic and has high blood pressure, and she was having a dizzy spell,” said Jagjit.

Rosmah is appealing to recuse Zaini Mazlan, the trial judge who found her guilty of three graft charges and sentenced her to 10 years in jail and a record RM970 million fine in the Sarawak rural schools’ solar energy project corruption case.

A three-member bench chaired by Justice Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim fixed the hearing on May 15 instead.

Deputy public prosecutor K Mangai did not object to the application to postpone the hearing.

Zaidi, who sat with Justices Azman Abdullah and Noorin Badaruddin, earlier asked Rosmah’s lawyers if the recusal and appeal against her conviction and sentence could be heard together to save time.

Jagjit said a retrial could be ordered if the recusal appeal was allowed

“The conviction and sentence will automatically collapse,” he said.

Outside the court, lawyer Akberdin Abdul Kader, a member of Rosmah’s legal team, said the 74-year-old had already felt unwell before coming to court this morning.

“We told her to be present (today) as the court would not excuse her from staying away,” he said.

In criminal proceedings, the accused or appellant must be present.

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.

Rosmah sought to disqualify Zaini after a purported draft of his judgment was published by the late blogger, Raja Petra Kamarudin.

She claimed that the judge should not preside over the case since she had lost confidence in him.

Zaini dismissed the application and convicted her 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 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 Rosmah to pay a RM970 million fine.

The court ordered Rosmah to serve another 10 years in prison after her initial sentence if she failed to pay the fine.

Zaini allowed Romsah bail pending the outcome of her appeal.