Penang exco members may give evidence in Guan Eng’s graft trial, says DPP
The prosecution says it has 125 people on its witness list for the hearing in June.
KUALA LUMPUR: Several state executive councillors who served under former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng will be prosecution witnesses in the Penang undersea tunnel project case.
Deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, who is leading the prosecution team, did not specify the numbers and who they were.
“We have 125 people on the witness list but all need not be called,” he told reporters after case management before trial Judge Azura Alwi.
Lim, 60, was chief minister from March 2008 to May 2018.
Wan Shaharuddin said the prosecution today also gave the defence copies of forensic reports from a phone, reports by the financial analysis division of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as well as an expert report on the project.
Earlier, another deputy public prosecutor, Ahmad Akram Gharib, told the judge the defence and the prosecution had a pre-trial case management in preparation for the trial, to begin on June 8.
“There will be statements from witnesses but the prosecution has the right to ask additional questions during examination-in-chief and re-examination,” he said.
All four corruption charges, two of which were first read in the Butterworth sessions court, will now be tried here.
Lim was charged on Aug 7 last year with corruptly soliciting gratification to help Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd senior director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli to secure the project.
He is alleged to have sought 10% of the profit to be made by the company from Zarul Ahmad, the company owner, near a hotel in Mid Valley City here in March 2011.
On Aug 10, he was charged at the Butterworth sessions court with using his position as then chief minister to solicit RM3.3 million in gratification for himself as an inducement for helping the company to secure the project, valued at RM6.3 billion.
On Sept 11, he was charged in the same court with two counts of causing two plots of land belonging to the Penang government worth RM208.8 million to be disposed of to two companies, which were linked to the state’s undersea tunnel project.
The offences were allegedly committed at the Penang Land and Mines Office at Level 21 of Komtar on Feb 17, 2015 and March 22, 2017, respectively.
Lim previously claimed trial to all four charges.
He is also facing a separate charge together with his wife, Betty Chew Gek Cheng, and businesswoman Phang Li Koon.
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In this case, Lim was charged on Aug 11 in his capacity as the then chief minister and chairman of Penang Development Corporation’s procurement board with using his position for gratification involving RM372,009 for his wife through Excel Property Management & Consultancy Sdn Bhd.