SEBERANG PERAI, Dec 18 — The abuse of power case against former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng was postponed yet again to February 19 next year for case management.
The Special Corruption Sessions Court also postponed Lim’s wife, Betty Chew Gek Cheng’s money laundering cases and businesswoman Phang Li Koon’s abetment case to the same date.
Sessions Court judge Ahmad Azhari Abdul Hamid fixed the date for case management for the cases after the prosecution applied for the cases to be postponed.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Shafiq Hasim told the court that there were still five documents to be handed over to the defence team.
“We have discussed with the defence team and will surrender the documents in hard copy to them so we are requesting for another date,” he told the court.
Counsel RSN Rayer, who appeared for both Lim and Chew, requested the next date to be fixed on February 19 based on the request of lead counsel, Gobind Singh Deo.
Later, outside the courtroom, Shafiq said the five documents will not be used during the hearing but since it was in the evidence list, they still need to hand it over to the defence team.
He added that there were more than 100 documents to be handed over to the defence team.
“We hope to set a proper trial date on the next mention date,” he said.
All three accused, Lim, Chew and Phang, were not present in court today.
In August, Lim, 60, was charged with abusing his power to obtain RM372,009 for his wife Betty Chew Gek Cheng sometime between August 19 in 2013 and March 3 in 2016 at the Penang chief minister’s office at Level 28 in Komtar.
He allegedly used his position as the Penang chief minister and Penang Development Corporation (PDC) Tender Board to obtain gratification for his wife Chew through Excel Property Management & Consultancy Sdn Bhd.
He allegedly used his position to ensure Magnificent Emblem Sdn Bhd was offered a request for proposal for a workers’ quarters project in Batu Kawan in South Seberang Perai worth RM11,610,000.
Phang, 48, was charged with abetting Lim in the offence.
Chew was charged with three counts of money laundering in which we allegedly received a total RM372,009 on three different occasions between October 7 in 2013 and March 3 in 2016.
Both Lim and Phang were charged under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 while Chew was charged under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA).
