KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 16): The star witness for former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng’s undersea tunnel trial told the Sessions Court on Friday that when the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) took his statements, he was asked to differentiate the issue on the case against Lim and businessman G Gnanaraja, who had been earlier charged with cheating.
Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli said he wanted to incorporate Lim’s graft allegations with his complaint on Gnanaraja in one statement after he was released from remand in January 2018, but was asked by the MACC investigating officer to separate them.
“That has resulted in me being confused in giving statements to different cases, one on Gnanaraja, and one on Lim,” he explained to the Sessions Court in the impeachment proceedings against him on Friday.
Zarul further explained that, at the time, he had just spent 11 days under remand, and had slept on a cement floor on those days, despite his medical condition of having a slipped disc.
After being released, the key witness said that his family had wanted to have a kenduri, and while he was about to go back to Penang in March, he had been summoned again by the MACC.
“I was asked to give further statements for 14 hours. How can I have a clear mind? How can I go through this? Thirty to forty MACC officers came and saw me. My wife kept calling me, asking whether I was coming back for the kenduri.
“I felt pressured when giving the statement to the MACC, and furthermore, the investigating officer asked me to differentiate my statement on Gnanaraja and Lim, whereas I wanted to explain the whole scenario. This [action of differentiating statements] had confused me when the statement was taken. How can someone endure this?” he explained.
The key witness explained that he was remanded by the MACC following investigations on graft with regards to the Penang undersea tunnel project.
Zarul, who is also suffering from cancer, became emotional when replying to questions from deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Laden, and at times he was asked by Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi to slow down in his testimony and to compose himself.
It was then that Zarul also revealed that he told the MACC that payments were also made to then-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, (Baling MP Tan Sri) Abdul Aziz Rahim, and Lim.
Throughout the proceedings in this case and the impeachment proceedings, there were arguments of a sum of RM2 million which, when Zarul Ahmad gave his statement in Gnanaraja, was allegedly paid to Najib; but, in this undersea trial, the key witness said there was an additional RM2 million paid to Gnanaraja, which was given to Lim.
This has been the central issue in the impeachment proceedings over the sum and who had actually received the payments.
RM2 mil is from sale of Lot 702
When further questioned by DPP Farah Yasmin Salleh over the origin of the RM2 million money purportedly paid to Lim, Zarul explained that it followed the sale of the Lot 702 land to Datuk Ewe Swee Kheng.
Zarul explained that as his company was facing difficulties with the Chinese consortium that withdrew from the project, Ewe, who had heard of this, said he was willing to step in.
Ewe had been interested in Lot 702 and Lot 713, which were part of the coastal reclamation project. The land was owned by the Penang government, and had been agreed to be given to the contractor of the Penang undersea tunnel project following a land swap.
Zarul explained that Ewe was said to be close with Lim, and had been interested in the land. He explained that his company had obtained the money from Ewe since 2013, and the land was given to his company by the Penang government in late 2015.
The key witness said Ewe had been paying the sum of RM79.8 million since 2013 when Ewe participated in the project and formed Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd, and later acquired the land when it was fully transferred to the company after a feasibility test (for the undersea tunnel) was completed, and which Ewe paid for the costs.
While Lim’s defence, led by Haijan Omar and RSN Rayer, objected to the prosecution’s line of questioning, Wan Shaharuddin replied that the sum of RM2 million was first raised by the defence and hence, the prosecution was entitled to raise it in this impeachment proceedings.
Zarul explained that he had a verbal agreement with Ewe over the scheduled payments to be made for the acquisition of the two plots of land.
The witness was then shown the testimony of his company’s former senior vice-president, Azli Adam, over the scheduled payment received from Ewe from 2013 to 2015, which Zarul agreed was for the transfer of the land.
The two plots of land were used for the development of the City of Dreams project in Penang, and when payment began from Ewe in 2013, his company was not yet the owner of the land but was assured of being given it following a land swap deal for the undersea tunnel project.
Ewe, who had owned Ewein Zenith Sdn Bhd, was initially slated to testify in this trial, but died suddenly in late 2021. However, his statement, which had been recorded by the MACC, was admitted in the trial.
Zarul in heated exchange with Haijan
Earlier, Zarul was questioned by Haijan on why Zarul had not revealed the presence of his bodyguard, named Din, during the hand-over of the money to Gnanaraja in August 2017, and he replied that it had not come to his mind.
The witness had a heated exchange with Haijan over the importance or absence of Din’s presence in Zarul’s testimony, as, in the statement recorded by the MACC, the director had said that Din had lifted bags containing cash to his car for it to be delivered to Gnanaraja.
Haijan asked whether this was an important evidence to know whether Din carried one or two bags containing the cash, to determine whether it was RM2 or RM4 million, and the witness replied that he did not think so, as Din had already returned to Indonesia.
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, 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.
The hearing continues before Azura on Aug 26.