PUTRAJAYA (Nov 30): Former Baling Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim's appeal in his defamation suit against DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng in relation to the Penang undersea tunnel project will now be heard on May 19, 2023.
The matter was set for hearing on Wednesday (Nov 30), but the three-member Court of Appeal (COA) panel postponed the matter as it had not taken a break since proceedings began in the morning.
Due to that and the estimated time of the parties' submissions and replies, the panel led by appellate court judge Datuk Lee Swee Seng said it was best to set the case for another date.
"We will have to apologise. As you would have observed we haven't taken any breaks... and looking at your estimated time of submission, each of you [would need] one hour each.
"We think in these circumstances, we will have to send it for case management to reschedule a fresh hearing date," he said.
Other members on the panel were COA judges Datuk P Ravinthran and Datuk Hashim Hamzah.
Porres Royan appeared for Abdul Azeez while Lim was represented by Datuk N Mureli.
The appeal was also postponed in September after COA judge Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera recused himself from hearing the case due to his connections with some of the parties in the matter.
Abdul Azeez is appealing the decision by the Penang High Court which dismissed his defamation suit against Lim, a former Penang chief minister.
The High Court had ruled in December 2020 that Abdul Azeez failed to prove his claims against Lim.
It was reported that Abdul Azeez sued Lim in 2018 claiming that Lim made defamatory statements during a press conference in February 2018 where Lim linked Abdul Azeez to a payment of RM3 million in consultation fees by the developer of the state's RM6.34 billion undersea tunnel project.
Abdul Azeez sought general and exemplary damages and other relief deemed fit by the court.
Separately, Lim, who is also Bagan MP and a former minister of finance, is currently on trial in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on graft charges involving the same project.
Lim is charged with two counts of dishonest misappropriation of property by releasing two plots of state-owned land to two companies.
Lim is also accused of soliciting, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur in March 2011, a 10% cut in profits from the undersea tunnel project from Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, a director of Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd — a special purpose vehicle of Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG) — to aid the group to secure the project.