10 years' jail, nearly billion-ringgit fine for Rosmah

The Kuala Lumpur High Court today sentenced Rosmah Mansor to 10 years in jail and fined her RM970 million after finding her guilty of three counts of corruption in her solar hybrid project case.

Rosmah, the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, was sentenced to 10 years' jail for each of the charges against her. 

However, she will only have to spend 10 years behind bars as High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan ordered for the jail sentences to run concurrently. 

She was granted a stay of execution pending her appeal. 

Zaini earlier found Rosmah guilty of three charges of corruption, saying the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt against the prosecution's arguments.

Rosmah, 70, was ordered to enter her defence against the three charges on Feb 18 last year, after the prosecution succeeded in proving a prima facie case against her.

She faced one charge of soliciting RM187.5 million and two counts of receiving bribes totalling RM6.5 million from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin.

The bribes were allegedly received through her former aide Rizal Mansor as a reward for helping Jepak Holdings secure the hybrid photovoltaic solar system integrated project as well as the maintenance and operation of diesel generator sets for 369 Sarawak rural schools worth RM1.25 billion from the education ministry through direct negotiation.

The High Court's verdict today comes a little over a week after the Federal Court dismissed Najib's final appeal against his conviction and sentence for the misappropriation of RM42 million in the SRC International case.