KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s appeal against the High Court’s 2022 decision to convict her of all three corruption charges in a case involving a solar project for Sarawak schools is still pending and has yet to be heard by the Court of Appeal.
This is because Rosmah is currently still pursuing her bid to recuse or disqualify Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan — the trial judge who at the High Court had found her guilty in 2022 — from her corruption case.
Previously, on September 1, 2022, Zaini had convicted Rosmah and sentenced her to 10 years’ jail and a RM970 million fine.
The jail sentence and fine have not been carried out on Rosmah, as Zaini, as the High Court judge, allowed a stay or suspension of the sentence while she pursues her appeal at the Court of Appeal.
Lawyer Harel Nieryan Awang Bakar, who is the co-counsel assisting lawyer Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin in Rosmah’s cases, told Malay Mail of the latest status of the two cases (her bid to remove Zaini, and her appeal against her solar conviction):
1. Rosmah’s bid to remove Zaini as her solar trial’s judge
On August 30, 2022, just two days before Zaini was scheduled to deliver his verdict on whether Rosmah was guilty or not in the corruption case, she had applied to remove him as the judge of that trial.
Rosmah had wanted Zaini to recuse himself and not make any decision in that trial, and wanted the scheduled decision date of September 1, 2022, to be temporarily postponed and for her corruption case to be heard again and decided by a different High Court judge.
Zaini had dismissed Rosmah’s recusal application at the High Court before proceeding to deliver his verdict, while a three-judge panel at the Court of Appeal on September 17, 2025, unanimously dismissed Rosmah’s appeal to recuse Zaini and found that there was no “real danger of bias” by the judge then.
When contacted, Harel Nieryan told Malay Mail that Rosmah had filed an appeal on September 22, 2025, at the Federal Court to pursue the bid to recuse Zaini as her trial judge.
The lawyer said that this appeal would not require the Federal Court to grant leave first, and that it would go straight for hearing by the Federal Court on February 25.
“The last case management was on last Tuesday (December 2, 2025) before senior assistant registrar Rizq Nurrqausar R M Bakri and the hearing was fixed on February 25, 2026,” he told Malay Mail.
2. Rosmah’s appeal against her solar conviction
On September 2, 2022, the very next day after Rosmah’s conviction, she filed her appeal against her conviction and the sentence of 10 years’ jail and a RM970 million fine against her.
Lawyer Harel Nieryan said the Court of Appeal last had a case management last Thursday (December 4) before deputy registrar Muhammad Noor Firdaus Rosli, where it was noted that Rosmah’s appeal to recuse Zaini was scheduled to be heard by the Federal Court on February 25.
“Therefore, a further case management was fixed on February 27, 2026, to update the court on the outcome of the Federal Court,” he told Malay Mail.
When contacted, Rosmah’s lawyer Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader also confirmed the two dates to Malay Mail.
Separately, Rosmah had previously also faced another trial involving 17 money laundering charges — 12 counts over alleged illegal deposits worth RM7,097,750 into her Affin Bank account and five counts over her alleged tax evasion on the same RM7 million amount.
The High Court in December 2024 struck out all the 17 charges against her and acquitted her, and Rosmah’s lawyers today confirmed to Malay Mail that the prosecution had dropped its appeal against the acquittal. This puts an end to the RM7 million money laundering case against Rosmah.
Rosmah, who is the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, has regularly been seen attending her husband’s criminal trial involving 25 charges in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case.
Zaini is currently serving as a Court of Appeal judge, following his elevation on January 17, 2023.
