JUDGMENT
Introduction
[1] The accused is the wife of the former Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak. She is faced with three charges under s 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009, where she is accused of corruptly soliciting and also receiving gratification as an inducement and reward for helping a company called Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd in getting a project from the Ministry of Education.
[2] Although the accused did not hold any office in the government, the prosecution alleged that she held considerable influence and that she had used it to benefit herself corruptly.
[3] The accused was initially charged in the Sessions Court. Her cases were subsequently transferred to the High Court pursuant to her application under s 417 Criminal Procedure Code, which was not objected by the prosecution. Two of the charges were in Case No: WA-45-9-03-2019, and was transferred to Justice Collin Sequerah's Court, where else one other charge in Case No: WA-45-19-07-2019 was transferred to this Court. The case in Justice Collin Sequerah's Court was subsequently transferred to this Court pursuant to the prosecution's application, who then applied to have it jointly tried with the charge in Case No: WA-45-19-07-2019.
The Charges
[4] The three charges are as follows:
The first charge: Case No: WA-45-9-03-2019
"Bahawa kamu, diantara bulan Januari dan April 2016, di Lygon Cafe, G-24, Ground Floor, Sunway Putra Mall, 100, Jalan Putra, Chow Kit, di dalam Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, telah secara rasuah meminta bagi diri kamu melalui Rizal bin Mansor (No K/P: 740809-06-5065) suatu suapan, iaitu, wang sejumlah RM187,500,000.00 yang merupakan 15% daripada nilai kontrak daripada Saidi Bin Abang Samsudin (No K/P: 590503-13-5445) yang merupakan Pengarah Urusan Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd (No. Syarikat: 138865- H), sebagai dorongan untuk melakukan suatu perkara yang dicadangkan, iaitu, membantu Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd mendapatkan "Projek Bersepadu Sistem Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Hibrid dan Penyelenggaraan dan Operasi Genset/ Diesel bagi 369 Sekolah Luar Bandar Sarawak" bernilai RM1,250,000,000.00 secara rundingan terus daripada Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, dan oleh yang demikian kamu telah melakukan suatu kesalahan di bawah perenggan 16(a)(A) Akta Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia 2009 [Akta 694] yang boleh dihukum dibawah subseksyen 24(1) Akta yang sama."