KUALA LUMPUR: The court has allowed the defence’s application to begin impeachment proceedings against statements by a key witness recorded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) relating to a corruption case involving former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng and a businessman.
Judge Azura Alwi has instructed the prosecution to submit the documents, which involved the witness statements of Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB) director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli in a Shah Alam cheating case.
“After hearing the submission, the court is satisfied to allow the defence to begin impeachment proceedings against the witness.
“However, the court also orders for the copy of witness statements from Shah Alam to be submitted to the court first before it can be presented to the defence,” she said at the Sessions Court here on Thursday (Nov 2).
Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said the prosecution would furnish the documents within two weeks.
Azura said she would later decide whether to allow the impeachment proceedings or otherwise after studying the witness statements for discrepancies.
She then set case management for Nov 17.
The defence had sought the documents to initiate the proceeding of challenging Zarul Ahmad’s credibility following his conflicting statements in this court and a previous case involving businessman G. Gnanaraja.
Zarul Ahmad’s statements had been produced in a separate trial in Shah Alam in 2019, where Gnanaraja was charged with cheating Zarul Ahmad of RM19mil as an inducement to help the latter drop money laundering charges.
On Oct 24, Zarul Ahmad revealed to this court that RM2mil was given to Lim via a cheque regarding the Penang undersea tunnel and road construction project, while another RM2mil in cash had been given to Gnanaraja for it to be delivered to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to facilitate the closure of MACC's ongoing investigation into his company.
Lim’s lawyer, Gobind Singh Deo, argued that Zarul Ahmad had previously provided a statement at the Shah Alam Sessions Court that the RM2mil was meant for Najib.
The prosecution stated that Zarul Ahmad had later "rectified" his statement to MACC concerning the Shah Alam case.
Questioning the “rectification”, Gobind said it was for the court to decide whether the statement had been rectified, not the prosecution.
The defence then filed an order to impeach Zarul Ahmad’s credibility.
Lim, 62, was facing an amended charge of using his position as then-Penang chief minister to solicit RM3.3mil in bribes as an inducement to assist Zarul Ahmad in securing the undersea tunnel project worth RM6,341,383,702.
Lim allegedly committed the offence at the Penang Chief Minister's Office, Level 28, Komtar, George Town, between January 2011 and August 2017.
In the second amended charge, Lim is accused of soliciting a bribe of 10% of the profit from the company as gratification to secure the project.
The offence was allegedly committed near The Gardens Hotel, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City here, in March 2011.
Lim, former DAP secretary-general, faces two further charges of causing two plots of land worth RM208.8mil, belonging to the Penang government, to be disposed of to two companies linked to the state's undersea tunnel project.
