Rosmah Mansor, wife of jailed ex-PM Najib, found guilty of corruption

Former Malaysian first lady Rosmah Mansor was ordered to serve 10 years in prison after being found guilty on Thursday of soliciting and receiving bribes during her husband’s corruption-tainted administration.

The decision comes a week after former Prime Minister Najib Razak was imprisoned over the massive looting of the 1MDB state fund.

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Rosmah was convicted on a charge of soliciting 187.5 million ringgit ($42 million) and two charges of receiving 6.5 million ringgit ($1.5 million) between 2016 and 2017 to help a company secure a project to provide solar energy panels to schools on Borneo island.

The court sentenced her to 10 years in prison on each charge, to be served concurrently, and a total fine of 970 million ringgit ($217 million).

Under the law, each charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of five times the bribes solicited and received.

Defense lawyer Jagjit Singh later told reporters that the amount of the fine was the largest ever in Malaysia’s history.

He said Rosmah was shocked and upset, and that they plan to appeal to higher courts.

Earlier, Rosmah made an emotional plea from the dock, saying she was saddened and felt she wasn’t given justice.

She said she had never solicited any funds or taken a single cent while she was heading charity foundations during her time as the prime minister’s wife.

She will be allowed to remain free on bail pending her appeal to higher courts.

Rosmah has also been charged with laundering illegal proceeds and tax evasion linked to 1MDB in another trial that hasn’t started.

Her conviction was another blow after Najib began a 12-year prison term last Tuesday after losing his final appeal in one of the five graft cases against him involving the multibillion-dollar pilfering of 1MDB.

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