Malaysia's former first lady faces new graft charge

The wife of Malaysia's ex-leader was Wednesday hit with a new corruption charge, the 20th since her husband's shock election loss, and complained she was the victim of "slander".

Rosmah Mansor -- widely reviled in Malaysia due to her penchant for lavish overseas shopping sprees -- was charged with accepting a five million ringgit (USD1.2 million) bribe in relation to a government solar power project.

She has already been hit with a barrage of money laundering and tax evasion charges linked to the looting of sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

Allegations that she, her husband Najib Razak, and his cronies stole billions of dollars from the fund and went on a global shopping spree played a major role in the election loss of Najib's coalition last year.

Appearing in a Kuala Lumpur court, Rosmah denied the latest charge against her -- that she accepted a kickback to help a company secure a project providing solar power generators to schools.

Afterwards, Rosmah told reporters that people had started apologising to her and Najib for having believed "all the slander" against them.

"People chose to listen to all the lies, to all the untrue stories that have been told," she said. "I will remain patient and face all the trials and tribulations which Allah has made go through."