KUALA LUMPUR (July 9): Former Penang chief minister and Bagan member of Parliament (MP) Lim Guan Eng has applied for his undersea tunnel graft trial — which is supposed to begin at the Sessions Court next week — to be transferred to the High Court.
The application was filed yesterday by Guan Eng's counsel and Puchong MP, Gobind Singh Deo, thus he is seeking for the impending proceedings at the Sessions Court be stayed until this application is heard first.
The matter has been fixed before High Court's Justice Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin for Monday (July 12) morning.
Guan Eng, who is also a former finance minister, said in his affidavit in support of the application sighted by theedgemarkets.com that it is proper that his case be transferred to the High Court as the charges were made under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009.
Guan Eng also noted that according to Section 62 of the Act, the defendant has to file his defence first. However, in another case involving him, the Court of Appeal found the section to be unconstitutional.
"On Dec 14, 2017, the Federal Court had allowed an appeal by the Court of Appeal. However, there are no written grounds in the apex court decision.
"I verily believe that the Federal Court's decision on whether Section 62 is consistent (with the constitution) is an important legal issue for a just and fair trial," he added.
He also said there are also legal issues regarding the recording of prosecution's witness statement under Section 112 and Section 51 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Section 30 and 33 of the MACC Act, especially the statements taken before and during the trial.
"I believe that Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli (Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd's [CZC] senior executive director) is an important witness in this case. In the preparation of this case, my lawyers have made an application that the witness statement is not a privileged document and should be provided to the defence team before or during the trial.
"This legal issue had been brought up in two other cases, including former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak to the Federal Court where reference is also made to the Husdi vs the Public Prosecutor case. Hence, I believe that my case is a fit and proper matter to be transferred to the High Court so the issues pertaining to Husdi's scase could be ventilated there," he said.
Court has jurisdiction to transfer case
Guan Eng said the High Court has the jurisdiction under Section 417 and 418 of the Criminal Procedure Code to transfer this case to the High Court.
The 60-year-old politician on Aug 7 last year claimed trial to corruptly solicited gratification to help CZC secure the undersea tunnel project.
He is alleged to have sought 10% of the profit to be made by the company from Zarul Ahmad near The Gardens Hotel, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra here in March 2011.
On Aug 10, Guan Eng was charged in the Butterworth Sessions Court with using his position as the then chief minister of Penang to solicit RM3.3 million in gratification for himself as an inducement for helping the company secure the project valued at RM6.3 billion.
On Sept 11, the Bagan MP was charged in the same court with two counts of causing two plots of land belonging to the Penang government worth RM208.8 million to be disposed of to two companies that were linked to the state's undersea tunnel project.