PUTRAJAYA: Lim Guan Eng has again failed in his bid to transfer his undersea tunnel corruption case to the High Court.
A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by judge Nor Bee Ariffin said the two questions of law posed by Lim had already been decided by the Federal Court, the highest court in the land.
Other judges who sat with Nor Bee were Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Hashim Hamzah.
Ruzima, who delivered the court ruling, said the trial could remain in the Sessions Court as the apex court had decided on the questions of the law raised by Lim.
“The appeal is dismissed as the appellant (Lim) has failed to fulfill the conditions for the transfer of the case (from the Sessions Court to High Court),” he said.
During submission on Oct 27, lawyer Gobind Singh Deo said the defence wanted to transfer the case to the High Court to enable them to later raise constitutional issues on Lim’s charges at the apex court.
The lawyer said if the undersea tunnel case started before the Sessions Court, the final avenue for Lim’s appeal would be the Court of Appeal.
Only cases heard at the High Court can move up to the Federal Court. The final decision for cases heard in the lower courts will come from the Court of Appeal.
Gobind said, previously, the defence in Lim’s bungalow case had won their appeal at the Federal Court to strike down Section 62 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act (MACC), which required an accused person to provide his defence statement to the prosecution before the trial started.
In that case, Lim was accused of using his position to obtain gratification by purchasing a bungalow from businesswoman Phang Li Koon for RM2.8 million. Lim and Phang were acquitted in 2018.
The second legal question is whether the defence is entitled to statements recorded by law enforcement authorities during their investigation.
In this case, Lim wants a copy of the statement of Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd’s (Zenith) senior director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli to enable the defence to cross examine the witness and prepare his defence.
Today, Ruzima said a five-member Federal Court bench in 2018 had ruled that Section 62 was constitutional, though a written ground was not made available.
“There was an order though no judgment, but that will suffice,” he added.
Ruzima said Section 51A of the Criminal Procedure Code required the prosecution to reveal information and disclose documents or reports that would form part of the prosecution’s case to the defence before commencement of trial.
However, he said there were also sufficient case laws from the Federal Court that the defence was not entitled to witness’ statements.
Gobind told reporters he would obtain instructions from Lim, who was present in court, on whether to file an appeal in the Federal Court.
Deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said the trial in the Sessions Court would resume on Nov 29.
Lim’s corruption case started at the Sessions Court on July 13 after the High Court turned down his bid to transfer the trial to the higher court.
Twelve prosecution witnesses have already testified since the trial started.
Lim is accused of using his position as chief minister to ask Zarul for a 10% cut of the profits which would be made from the roads and tunnel project.
The former finance minister is also accused of seeking RM3.3 million in kickbacks to appoint Zarul’s company to undertake the project.
He also faces two counts of dishonestly misappropriating RM208.7 million worth of state land to two companies.-FMT