GEORGE TOWN, May 6 — Former Penang Gerakan chief Teng Chang Yeow retracted his statements about Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng in a consent judgment at the High Court here today.
Teng read out his statement of retraction for comments he made on January 16 and 18 last year, which were published in the New Straits Times and Berita Harian.
“I hereby unconditionally and unreservedly retract the impugned statements that I made in the press conference convened on January 16 and 18 in 2018 respectively which were later published,” he read out before Justice Datuk Rosilah Yop, Lim and lawyers from both sides.
The offending remarks had been printed on January 17, 2018 edition of the NST in an article titled Come clean on payments, Penang urged.
Additional statements he retracted were from articles published in Berita Harian on January 17 last year titled Pulau Pinang sembunyi fakta bayaran and in the NST on January 19 last year titled Penang BN claims CM lied over 4 issues.
“I regret the hardship and difficulties caused to Lim Guan Eng due to the publication of the above,” he said.
Counsel for Lim, Simon Murali, said Teng agreed to voluntarily and unconditionally retract the statements.
“After reading out the retraction, both the plaintiff and defendant will not have any other claims against each other in future with regards to this case,” he said.
No judgment was issued with regards to costs.
Lim had filed the defamation suit against Teng over the latter’s allegations over the undersea tunnel project.
Later outside the courtroom, Lim said this retraction showed that all accusations regarding Penang’s undersea tunnel project were false.
“This showed that these accusations about the undersea tunnel project were not true and lies to smear my image and that of the state government,” he said.
The allegations made in the news articles were against Lim when he was the Penang chief minister.
