While a former bodyguard for a minister has painted the possibility that businessman Shazryl Eskay Abdullah could have been angry with Anwar Ibrahim for not testifying in the crooked bridge case, a lawyer representing the plaintiff today denied such a notion.

CV Prabhakaran, who is the lead counsel for Eskay in the 2002 suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court against Merong Mahawangsa Sdn Bhd  and its executive director Yahya A Jalil, said in fact the opposition leader wanted to testify.

“I can verify that Anwar was indeed willing to testify in the case. It wasn’t a case whereby Anwar is not willing to testify as he was prepared to come and testify,” he said, adding he was willing to be quoted on this.

“What I can say is that the lawyers, Eskay and myself had decided not to call Anwar for this case. This follows Eskay and the defendant Yahya did not deny that Anwar’s role was merely handing over their (Yahya and Merong Mahawangsa’s) letter to the Economic Planning Unit (EPU).

“Since there is no denial of Anwar’s small role, we decided not to call Anwar and Eskay had agreed on this,” he told Malaysiakini .

Prabhakaran is also one of the defence counsel acting for Anwar in the present Sodomy II case.

Mohamad Mahti Abdul Rahim, a former bodyguard for a minister, claims that Eskay was upset that Anwar refused to be his witness in a civil suit involving the ‘crooked bridge’ project.

After almost 10 years, the case had been transferred to three judges before landing at Justice VT Singham’s court, and was heard this month.

In fact, Justice Singham had earlier this week fixed May 5 to deliver his verdict.

In the case, Shazryl is claiming RM20 million from Merong Mahawangsa and Yahya for alleged breach of contract after he played a role in getting the project.

Mahti had testified in the trial as the plaintiff’s (Eskay)  first witness when he gave evidence that he saw his former boss Megat Junid Megat Ayob, who was then the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs minister, gave an EPU letter to Eskay to award the bridge project to replace the Johor causeway.

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