Jan 9 decision on 'discrepancy' in witness statement against Guan Eng

The Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court will decide on Jan 9 whether there is any discrepancy in a key prosecution witness’ MACC statement against former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng.

Trial judge Azura Alwi set the date today after the prosecution handed her a copy of the 108-page statement to the MACC by Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB) director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli.

Zarul (above) is a key prosecution witness in the ongoing corruption trial against former finance minister Lim linked to the RM6.3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project.

Back on Nov 2, Azura allowed a bid by Lim’s defence team to commence impeachment proceedings to discredit Zarul’s credibility due to an alleged discrepancy in the witness’ statement given to the MACC in the course of the investigation.

However, she directed prosecutors to hand her the MACC statement so she could determine whether there was any discrepancy in Zarul’s statement that warrants her to hand the document to the defence team and permit them to proceed with the impeachment bid.

During open-court proceedings this morning, Azura said she would peruse Zarul’s full MACC statement and decide if there are any inconsistencies therein that would require her to hand it to Lim’s lawyers for impeachment proceedings.

In the event that Azura does not find any discrepancies, she will not hand over the document to Lim’s legal team and will proceed with the full trial of the case in January.

Lim was not present during today’s mention as his attendance was allowed to be dispensed with by the criminal court.

Deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin prosecuted.

Undersea tunnel case

Lim is on trial over four corruption charges involving the planned construction of Penang’s undersea tunnel and paired roads project connecting the island to the mainland.

For the first charge, Lim is accused of having abused his power as then-Penang chief minister to obtain RM3.3 million in monetary gratification as an inducement to appoint Zarul’s company to implement the RM6,341,383,702 project.

He allegedly committed the offence between January 2011 and August 2017 at the Penang Chief Minister’s Office.

On the second charge, Lim is alleged to have asked Zarul for 10 percent of profits as a reward for helping his company secure the said project.

Lim is purported to have committed the offence at The Gardens Hotel, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City, in Kuala Lumpur, between 12.30am and 2am in March 2011.

He also faces two counts of dishonest disposing of two plots of land belonging to the Penang government in Bandar Tanjong Pinang worth RM208 million to the developer of the tunnel project, which allegedly took place at the State Land and Mines Office in Komtar on Feb 17, 2015, and March 22, 2017.

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