News by Syahirah Syed Jaafar

“The political situation at that time required a lot of money and I saw Datin Seri Rosmah spend a lot on personal and political affairs, such as paying bloggers and cybertroopers, to defend her image and reputation,” the witness testified.

Lawrence Tee, the prosecution's 20th witness, said he was asked by Rosmah's aide Datuk Rizal Mansor to prepare the agreement in 2016. Although reluctant, Tee said he went ahead with it because Rizal said "Mam" wanted him to do so.

"The ban will affect, amongst others, expatriates with valid work permits in Malaysia such as Employment Passes and Professional Visitor Passes. Within our membership, these categories would severely impact the immediate operations of some of the country's largest investors.”

UOA attributed the lower revenue largely to lower progressive recognition in the current quarter due to the Covid-19 pandemic that halted the construction progress during the MCO and conditional MCO period.

"The KVDT project is the third contract win for the group in the last three months. We believe the group's expertise and track record in rail infrastructure projects put us in a good position to secure more contracts in the coming months," the group said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.

The first payment of RM5 million was made by former Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsuddin to Rosmah via Datuk Rizal Mansor, Rosmah’s personal aide who took the money and delivered it to her Sri Perdana residence in Putrajaya.

The project is part of the integrated waterfront mixed development project in Penang known as The Light City.

One of her lawyers, Azrul Zulkifli Stork told High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan that he was not feeling well after experiencing a fall in his home yesterday.

Saidi Abang Samsudin told the court that he had initially settled for making a 10% contribution, but Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, through her aide Datuk Rizal Mansor, insisted on increasing the percentage to 15%.

The official statistics revealed that there were 826,100 unemployed in May, an increase of 6% from 778,800 in April.

Nonetheless, few might have noticed that the size of the labour force has been shrinking in recent months. In April, the labour force lost 130,000 people when it declined to 15.71 million, from 15.84 million in March. The number remained flat at 15.71 million in May.