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DATIN Seri Rosmah Mansor appeared in the courtroom at the Federal Court in Putrajaya for the hearing of her appeal to recuse the judge who convicted her in the solar bribery case.
Last week, the Federal Court was scheduled to hear Rosmah’s case, but she did not appear as she was on a five-day sick leave after a fall at home and the case was postponed.
Rosmah, dressed in a red baju kurung, entered the courtroom around 9am.
Last Wednesday, the Federal Court adjourned the hearing of Rosmah Mansor’s appeal to recuse the judge who convicted her in the high-profile solar bribery case, following her absence due to a fall at home that left her with injuries to her knees and right shoulder.
Rosmah, who will turn 75 in December, was scheduled to appear in court last week but was on a five-day medical leave.
Her lead lawyer, Datuk Jagjit Singh, told the Federal Court that Rosmah “sustained a fall but managed to prevent a complete fall.
But in the process, she injured her hand as well, and knees also.”
He later confirmed to reporters that the fall occurred on February 23 and that the medical leave covers February 24 to 28.
Asked by Federal Court judge Datuk Azimah Omar if Rosmah had been admitted to hospital, Jagjit said she had been advised to do so but “she didn’t want to be admitted.”
Azimah responded that if she could not attend court, “she should not be at home, she should be at hospital,” emphasising that the adjournment request concerns a long-pending Federal Court matter.
Deputy public prosecutor Mangaiarkarasi Krishnan did not object to the short adjournment, and Federal Court judge Datuk Nordin Hassan, chairing the three-judge panel, allowed the request while maintaining March 3 as the new hearing date.
Nordin described the case as a “priority” and a “public interest case,” despite Rosmah’s lawyers noting other pending court matters on the same day.
The Federal Court rejected Rosmah’s application to remove two judges from the panel—Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali—despite her legal team citing “discomfort” over their previous involvement in related matters.
Nordin said there was no “real danger of bias” and stressed that the judges have a responsibility to hear the case.
Rosmah was convicted on September 1, 2022, by High Court judge Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan for accepting bribes in the solar project for Sarawak schools, and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and a RM970 million fine. She has not served the sentence while her appeal remains pending.
Her legal team today included over ten lawyers from several firms, including Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad, and Azrul Zulkifli Stork. The prosecution was represented by deputy public prosecutors Ng Siew Wee and Sarulatha Paramavathar.
Today’s proceedings mark another step in Rosmah’s ongoing attempts to challenge her conviction and to have the trial reviewed by a different judge, though previous attempts in both the High Court and Court of Appeal to remove the trial judge have been unsuccessful. - March 3, 2026