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Several prosecution witnesses, including Rizal and Mahdzir, listened to the audio recording in court and testified that the voice was that of Rosmah.
In his judgment, the judge noted that Rosmah attempted to downplay the conversation by relating it to a typical discussion between husband and wife.
“It, however, was no ordinary conversation between spouses, for it was about government affairs. It is clear from the audio recording that the accused gave instructions to Najib on government affairs.
“Her tone was commanding and contrary to her contention that she heeded Najib’s prohibition on not meddling in government affairs.”
The judge added: “I say this with the greatest of respect, but it is apparent that the accused dominates Najib. She has control over him.”
“She had no business interfering in Najib’s duties or the government’s affairs, but she did,” he wrote.
FORMER EDUCATION MINISTER MAHDZIR “ATTEMPTED TO DO THE RIGHT THING”
During the course of events, Mahdzir, the former Education Minister, “attempted to do the right thing”, the court found.
He was reluctant to circumvent the ministry’s procedure.
“He had even gone to the extent of trying to persuade Najib on two occasions personally,” the judge wrote.
When presented with the letter of proposal from Jepak in the beginning, Mahdzir noted that the project would require specialised skills, which he doubted the company had.
Additionally, he had reservations about its capability to undertake such a massive commitment. Nonetheless, he instructed an officer in the Education Ministry to form a technical team and call upon Jepak to submit its proposal.
When pushed by Saidi and Rayyan to speed up the approval for the project, he told them they would need to go through the usual procedure and wait for the ministry’s official response.
They were not happy with this arrangement, and Najib later instructed Mahdzir to issue a letter of award “immediately”.
Despite pressure from Rizal, Saidi and Rayyan, Mahdzir refused to deviate from the course of action taken by his ministry. However, he received another set of instructions from Najib to proceed with his previous minutes, at which he “felt he had no choice but to approve the project”.
According to the judgment, Mahdzir spoke to Najib sometime in June 2016, during which he tried to convince him to use an open tender for the project and not through direct negotiations with Jepak. However, Najib was adamant and told him to carry out his instructions.
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