Rosmah’s ex-aide met us to talk on ‘commission’ for solar project, says witness
(FMT) – A witness told the High Court in Rosmah Mansor’s corruption trial that her former aide met his Sarawakian business partner to discuss the “commission” amount to be paid for the former prime minister’s wife if she agreed to help the company secure a solar project for Sarawak schools.
Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah said he attended the meeting with Saidi Abang Samsudin and Rizal Mansor at a restaurant here sometime in January 2016.
The two men met Rizal after the education ministry did not provide feedback to Saidi’s Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd on the company’s proposal to execute the solar project.
“I do not agree to the suggestion that Saidi was offering a political donation through her (Rosmah) for Datuk Najib (Razak) to win the 2018 general election.
“The offer was meant for the project,” he said, when cross-examined by Rosmah’s lawyer Akberdin Abdul Kader.
Akberdin then suggested Rizal was the one who brought up the “political donation” term.
“Saidi nodded in agreement for us to call it a ‘political donation’,” Rayyan said.
Rayyan said “political donation” was a better term to be used, compared to “commission”.
“Yes, if you want to say it in a nice way,” he added.
Earlier, Rayyan told the court that he contacted former education ministry secretary-general Madinah Mohamad sometime in 2018, hoping she could launch an audit into the project.
Madinah took over the position of auditor-general after she retired from the ministry.
“I sent Tan Sri the screenshots of my WhatsApp messages with Rizal about the RM5 million cash paid to Rosmah,” he added.
The hearing continues before High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan on July 16.
Rosmah was slapped with three counts of corruption for allegedly soliciting RM187.5 million from Saidi as an inducement to help the company secure the project for 369 schools in rural Sarawak, worth a total of RM1.25 billion, through direct negotiation, from the education ministry.
She was also accused of receiving bribes amounting to RM6.5 million from Saidi between 2016 and 2017.
