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KUALA LUMPUR (July 19): The Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) has rejected the representation letter from former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng, prosecutors said on Friday.
This decision means that Lim, who is also the Bagan Member of Parliament, would have to continue to answer his graft charges in relation to the undersea tunnel trial.
Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin informed Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi that they had received a letter of representation from Lim’s solicitors on June 28. “However, the AGC rejected his (Lim's) representation earlier this month,” he said.
Azura then fixed Aug 8 for continued hearing.
Also present was Lim’s lawyer Haijan Omar.
Previously, it was reported that Lim’s lawyers filed the representation letter following conflicting testimony made by star witness Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli.
Zarul Ahmad has been facing impeachment proceedings since January before Azura, as she ruled there was discrepancy in his testimony in the trial, as compared to his statement recorded with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over businessman G Gnanaraja’s cheating charges in the Shah Alam Sessions Court.
Gnanaraja, however, pleaded guilty to an alternative charge under the Companies Act, and was fined RM230,000.
Lim, 62, is charged with using his position as the then-Penang chief minister to solicit a 10% cut in the RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel project’s profits from Zarul Ahmad, in return for aiding the businessman’s company to secure the project.
Lim, who is also the DAP chairman, is accused of accepting RM3.3 million in kickbacks. A purported RM2 million paid on Aug 18, 2017 to Gnanaraja is said to be part of the RM3.3 million.
Lim also faces two counts of dishonest misappropriation of property in releasing two plots of state-owned land, cumulatively worth RM208.75 million, to Ewein Zenith Sdn Bhd and Zenith Urban Development — two property companies linked to the controversial undersea tunnel project.