A prosecution witness in the criminal breach of trial of ex-Perwaja Steel managing director Eric Chia intially refused outright to respond to a defence contention that he had lied about a meeting with a Japanese company official regarding a payment of RM76.4 mill.

Ex-Perwaja Steel group operations manager Dr Akram Che Ayub said he would not respond to the questions posed by the defence as he "... did not want to incriminate" himself or have his credibility challenged.

He said this after Chia's lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah confronted him with two letters in which he (Akram) said he had never met NKK Corporation manager N Otani on Oct 4, 1995.

The contents of the letters contradicted Akram's testimony last Friday that he had met Otani and even asked the Japanese to write to him to explain discrepancies in relation to a payment of RM76.4 million from Perwaja Rolling Mills and Development to his firm.

"I do not want to answer the question as I do not want to incriminate myself. I prefer that the matter is handled by my lawyer," said Akram repeatedly, appearing visibly upset by the turn of events.

At this juncture, Sessions Court judge Akhtar Tahir directed Akram to answer as there was nothing in the law that disqualified him from responding to the questions posed by counsel.

"Be assured that if you tell the truth, no criminal prosecution can be initiated even if your testimony exposes yourself to a penalty, directly or indirectly," advised Akhtar.

Akram then reflected on this for a few moments before agreeing to answer the questions.

'Wrong information'

Earlier, the court had heard that the two letters were issued by Akram's lawyer, Messrs Zainal Abidin & Co, whom he had retained after receiving a letter of demand from Chia for alleged defamation.

Chia had initiated the legal action alleging that a letter Akram had instructed Otani to write - in which the Japanese claimed that his firm had never asked to be paid RM76.4 million for technical assistant services - was scurrilous and defamatory.

Akram was testifying at the trial of Chia who is charged with making an unauthorised payment of RM76.4 million to NKK on Feb 22, 1994 via the accounts of Frilsham Enterprises Incorporated.

Chia also faces an alternative charge of illegally entering into an agreement with NKK to dispose of the RM76.4 million without the approval from Perwaja's board of directors.

He is charged under section 409 of the Penal Code which carries the maximum penalty of 20 years in jail.

ACA statement admitted

Explaining the contents of the two letters, Akram said that at the time he received Chia's letter of demand in December 2002, he had "... forgotten about my meeting with Otani but this trial has now refreshed my memory".

He then agreed with the defence's suggestion that his letters via Messrs Zainal Abidin & Co, were "nonsense".

Akram, however, denied counsel's suggestion that he had acted with bad intentions or that he had wilfully lied in the letters.

"I had no bad intention. I had only forgotten about the meeting as it happened a very long time ago," said Akram.

During re-examination, the prosecution tendered Akram's statement to the Anti-Corruption Agency in June 1996 to corroborate his testimony to date in court.

Allowing the statement to be tendered as evidence, the judge said that, since the witness' credibility had been attacked by the defence, the prosecution must be allowed to adduce evidence to substantiate Akram's court testimony.

The hearing continues tomorrow.