BUTTERWORTH: The corruption trial of former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng, his wife and a businesswoman has been postponed for another three months to allow defence lawyers to go through “1,000 pages” of documents from the prosecution.
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This is the third postponement since October.
Lim, his wife Betty Chew and her associate, Phang Li Koon, had claimed trial in the sessions court six months ago and were granted an extension by the court twice, totalling four months.
The extensions, granted by the court last October and December, were to allow the prosecution to submit five more documents and to print hard copies of all the documents submitted so far, as requested by the defence.
The documents earlier served to the defence were in the form of a compact disc.
Today, the court granted an additional three-month extension after RSN Rayer, the lawyer for Lim and his wife, said “1,000 documents” were served on the defence team on Feb 16.
Rayer said more time was needed to go through the 1,000 pages from the prosecution.
He said there also might be a “constitutional challenge” and an interlocutory application may be made in the near future.
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The application was also supported by Phang’s counsel, Ruebankumar Asokan.
Deputy public prosecutor Shafiq Hasim did not object to the request.
Judge Ahmad Azhari Abdul Hamid allowed the application and set May 28 for case management.
On Aug 11, the trio were charged with receiving kickbacks over a RM11.6 million project for foreign workers’ dormitories in Penang.
They were charged with offences related to illegal proceeds amounting to RM372,009 received in Chew’s bank account as money to ensure a project for the dormitories was awarded to Phang’s company.
They were charged under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (AMLA) 2001 and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009.
Lim was charged with abuse of power as he was Penang chief minister at the time of the alleged offence between Aug 19, 2013 and March 3, 2016. All three accused pleaded not guilty.- FMT