What next in ‘first lady of Malaysia’ Rosmah Mansor’s corruption trial?

The wife of disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak once had her own government division, despite having no official powers

She stands accused of soliciting millions of dollars in bribes linked to contracts for a solar energy project involving rural schools

Reading Time:3 minutes

Rosmah Mansor, centre, arrives at Kuala Lumpur High Court last week. Photo: EPA

Published: 12:28pm, 10 Feb 2020Updated: 9:37am, 11 Feb 2020

Rosmah Mansor, the former self-styled ‘first lady of Malaysia’ who once had her own government division despite having no official powers, entered the second week of her trial for corruption on Monday.

The wife of disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak, who is facing multiple corruption charges of his own linked to the 1MDB financial scandal, stands accused of three counts of dishonestly soliciting 194 million ringgit (US$46.8 million) in bribes connected to solar energy project contracts and faces up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.

She is also facing a separate 12 charges for money laundering and five counts of failure to declare income to the country’s tax authorities, bringing the total number of charges against her to 20.

During her husband’s nine-year tenure in power, Rosmah had a First Lady of Malaysia (FLOM) division created for her directly under the prime minister’s office for the first time in the country’s history.

Rosmah has earlier claimed she was too ill to attend trial. Photo: DPA

Huzairi Zainal Abidin, director of secretariat and services management in the prime minister’s office at the time, told the court in his witness statement that he had been ordered to set up Rosmah’s FLOM division, although he said he did not remember who gave the order.