Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said the apex court had ruled in the case of Public Prosecutor v Anwar Ibrahim that a trial judge could revisit his earlier position.
“It is trite law that a ruling made during a trial could not be connoted as a decision as the latter has the element of finality,” he said.
That recording would now entitle the court to evaluate Rosmah’s disposition like her overbearing nature as stated in the prosecution’s opening statement.
The last time around, the court heard the first 10 seconds of the recording where Rosmah was heard telling Najib, “Can I advise you something?” with former prime minister Najib telling his wife that he needed to get into the car first.
The prosecution in its submission at the close of its case urged Zaini to review his ruling, to refuse admitting the audio recording as evidence.
Former education minister Mahdzir Khalid, a prosecution witness then told the court that the woman’s voice in the recording was that of Rosmah while the man’s voice belonged to Najib.
The earlier ruling to reject the audio recording was made in the course of the trial on Dec 11 and Zaini said it did not come within Section 3 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, namely judgment, sentence or order.
Further, the judge said Section 41A of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act (MACC) 2009 is a special provision which excludes any general law like the Evidence Act.
Section 41A allows the prosecution to tender any document or a copy of that document obtained by the MACC and it shall be admissible as evidence in any proceedings.
“The prosecution attempted to admit these two items (audio recording and the transcript) during the current proceeding. Therefore, they are admissible in evidence.
“I must, however, add the weight attached to them is a different consideration altogether,” he said.
Previously, former MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya released nine audio recordings purportedly featuring Najib, Rosmah and several officials in discussions over dealings linked to 1MDB and SRC International.
Rosmah, 69, is accused of soliciting RM187.5 million from former Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin, through her then aide Rizal Mansor as an inducement to help the company secure the solar project through direct negotiation with the education ministry.
She is also accused of two counts of receiving bribes amounting to RM6.5 million from Saidi between 2016 and 2017.
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