A lawyer suggested in court today that his client, former Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager, OC Phang, was made a scapegoat in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

The lawyer for Phang, Mathew Thomas Philip, grilled former PKA chairperson Lee Hwa Beng after the latter admitted PKA took civil action against Phang for breaching her fiduciary duty due to political pressure.

"I put it to you that it was political pressure to bring a civil action against her," Philip suggested when cross-examining Lee in the second day of the civil suit in the Shah Alam High Court.

He nodded, but said PKA has nothing personal against Phang.

Lee, who was instructed by former Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat to file a civil action in 2008, had initially wanted to take the entire PKA board responsible for the fiasco, but the board rejected his idea.

Earlier, Philip accused Lee of failing to investigate the PKFZ project thoroughly, and that he had acted based on the outcome of the investigation by his team. 

Philip told the court, presided by Justice M Gunalan, that Lee's testimony was merely an interpretation and opinion, as he lacks technical and legal knowledge on the PKFZ project. 

Lee disagreed when asked if the only reason Phang was being sued was that the scandal needed a scapegoat. He maintained that Phang should be held responsible for causing the cost of the PKFZ project to balloon.

Phang held the post of general manager in PKA from Sept 1997 to June 2008. Although present in court, she declined to speak with the media.

In March, Lee took to the stand and accused Phang of causing the cost of the PKFZ project to balloon from nearly RM2 billion to RM4.63 billion in 2006.

The RM4.63 billion soft loan from the Finance Ministry also imposed an additional RM2.51 billion in interest costs on the corporation.

The case continues tomorrow.