Rosmah gets passport to visit daughter in Singapore

PUTRAJAYA - The Court of Appeal today granted Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor's application for the temporary release of her passport to enable her to travel to Singapore to visit her daughter who is expected to give birth at the end of the month.

A panel of three judges, consisting of Judges Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Datuk Azman Abdullah and Datuk Azmi Ariffin, allowed Rosmah's application after her lawyer, Datuk Jagjit Singh, told the court that his client needed to go to the republic to be with her eldest daughter, Nooryana Najwa Mohd Najib, who is due to give birth to her third child.

"My client requested her passport to enable her to go to Singapore from tomorrow until Aug 23, Aug 26 to Sept 6 and from Sept 9 to Oct 31. The prosecution did not object to this application," said the lawyer.

Deputy public prosecutor Poh Yih Tinn confirmed that the prosecution did not object to the application.

Rosmah filed the notice of motion on Aug 11 through Messrs Akberdin & Co. to be with Nooryana Najwa who is due to give birth on Aug 28.

In the notice, the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said she has never failed to turn up in court for proceedings without reason or reasonable grounds.

Rosmah said she will return to Malaysia to attend the appeal proceedings of her solar hybrid project corruption case.

Before this, the Court of Appeal had fixed Sept 18 for case management.

Rosmah said so far, she has never failed to turn up in court for proceedings without reason or reasonable grounds.

This is the fourth time Rosmah is applying for the temporary release of her passport to travel to Singapore.

The first was on Oct 15, 2021, to visit Nooryana Najwa who had delivered her second child, and then on March 21 this year to visit her daughter and grandchild and also on June 15 to visit Nooryana Najwa again.

Nooryana Najwa is married to Kazakhstan national Daniyar Kessikbaye and the couple now resides in Singapore.

On Sept 1 last year, the High Court found Rosmah guilty of three corruption charges involving RM1.25 billion in connection with a hybrid solar project for schools in Sarawak.

Rosmah, 71, was sentenced to 10 years in jail on each charge to be served concurrently, which means she will only serve 10 years in jail. She was also fined RM970 million, in default 30 years in jail.

The High Court, however, granted Rosmah a stay of execution of the prison sentence and fine pending her appeal at the Court of Appeal. - BERNAMA