PUTRAJAYA: Former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng has abandoned his appeal to the Federal Court to transfer his ongoing undersea tunnel corruption trial to the High Court.
His lawyer Haijan Omar said a notice of discontinuance was filed at the Federal Court registry this afternoon.
The appeal was scheduled to be heard tomorrow.
FMT understands that Lim, who is now DAP national chairman, did not want to proceed with the appeal as the trial, at the prosecution stage, before the sessions court in Kuala Lumpur is at an advanced stage.
Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, who is leading the prosecution team in Lim’s case, said the defence had notified him about the notice of discontinuance.
He said the prosecution would be calling another six or seven witnesses before closing its case. So far 31 people have testified in the trial which started on July 31 last year.
Last November, Lim filed an appeal to reverse the findings of the Court of Appeal that the sessions court judge was competent to preside over the trial.
A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by justice Nor Bee Ariffin dismissed Lim’s two questions of law saying these had already been decided by the Federal Court.
The other justices who sat with Nor Bee were Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Hashim Hamzah.
Ruzima, who delivered the judgment, said Lim had also failed to fulfil the conditions for the transfer of the case from the sessions court to the High Court.
Lim is accused of using his position as chief minister to ask Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd’s senior director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli 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. - FMT
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