The lawyer representing former Transport Minister Dr Ling Liong Sik had to postpone the interview session of witnesses for the former MCA president's defence, as one of the minister's in the list was not available.

Ling's counsel Wong Kian Kheong said it was initially scheduled for today but had to be put off.

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"However, since a minister was not able to attend the interview session, we had to cancel the session and fix it for another date," he said.

Ling ( right ) had named prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and former premiers Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as possible witnesses to prepare his defence.

The other eight, were current and former ministers who were cabinet members from 2002 to 2004.

Those summoned included Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim and Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok.

Who's who of witnesses

The others are former women, family and community development minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, former energy and telecommunications Minister Leo Moggie, former education minister Musa Mohamad, former tourism minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir , former energy, water and communications minister Lim Keng Yaik and former minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin.

The only non-minister in the line-up is the then special economic adviser to the then PM, Ali Abul Hassan.

Ling, 68, was ordered by the Kuala Lumpur High Court to enter his port klang free zone 070607 customs defence the charge of deceiving the government by not disclosing to the cabinet an additional interest rate of 7.5 percent per annum on the purchase price of the land for the PKFZ project.

The price had been fixed at RM1,088,456,000 by the Valuation and Property Services Department, based on RM25 per sq ft, inclusive of the coupon/interest rate.

Ling faces two alternative charges, of allegedly cheating and intentionally omitting from informing the cabinet that the 7.5 percent per annum was an additional interest rate on the land price.

The offences were allegedly committed at the fourth floor of the Prime Minister's Office in the Perdana Putra building in Putrajaya, between Sept 25 and Nov 6, 2002.

The resumption of the has been scheduled for June 18 to 22, July 2 to 5, 10 to 13 and 16 to 18 periods.

Today, Wong was supposed to interview Rais, and it is learnt on May 26 and May 28 he is scheduled to interview former education minister Musa Mohamad and Mahathir respectively.

Today is the second day for the defence lawyer to interview witnesses as on May 11, it had already interviewed Leo Moggie, former water, telecommunications and multimedia minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik and Shahrizat.