KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 2): Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor has filed an appeal against her conviction and sentence over all three counts of graft pertaining to the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.

Counsel for the former premier's wife Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader confirmed this with theedgemarkets.com when contacted.

On Thursday (Sept 1), High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan found her guilty of all three corruption charges and sentenced Rosmah to 10 years' imprisonment and also fined her a whopping RM970 million.

Mohamed Zaini ordered for the jail sentence for all three charges to run concurrently, which means the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak faces 10 years' imprisonment.

However, the trial judge also said that should Rosmah fail to pay the fine, she will be liable to a total of 30 years in jail, as she faces 10 years in prison for each count.

The fine — five times the combined amount of RM187.5 million solicited and RM6.5 million received — is said to be the highest amount imposed by the High Court for a graft case.

The High Court also granted a stay of execution on the sentence, pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Rosmah, 70, was charged with soliciting RM187.5 million from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd's Saidi for the RM1.25 billion project awarded by the Education Ministry between April and August 2016.

She was also accused of receiving RM5 million and RM1.5 million from Saidi at her private residence in Jalan Langgak Duta and at the prime minister's official residence in Seri Perdana between Dec 20, 2016 and Sept 7, 2017.

All three charges are framed under Section 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) Act.

Rosmah has also filed an appeal on Mohamed Zaini's decision to dismiss her application to recuse the High Court judge from presiding over her graft trial.

Her last-minute application, which was made two days before the decision, was set to be delivered based on an article published by Raja Petra Kamarudin's Malaysia Today portal last Friday (Aug 26), which purports that the written judgement in her case had been prepared by unnamed persons for the judge, as well as two leaked confidential documents prepared by the Kuala Lumpur High Court Research Unit that were alleged to be the judgement on her case.

The application was heard on Thursday morning, before the verdict was delivered.

In dismissing the application judge Mohamed Zaini said that the "leaked judgements" were merely opinions written by the court's research team, which were neither prepared for him, nor on his instructions.

He added that he did not seek to rely on the opinions, and that he had not looked at the documents.

"Anyone can form their own opinions but at the end of the day, the only opinion that matters is my own that will form the basis of my decision," he had said.

The Edge is covering the trial live here.

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