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Former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng with his lawyers and supporters outside the Penang High Court today.
Guan Eng and wife fail to strike out graft charges
KUALA LUMPUR, May 3, 2024: The High Court today rejected DAP chairman and former Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and his wife’s bid to strike out graft charges.
Judicial commissioner Rofiah Mohamad said the court rejected the defence’s contention that the accused suffered double jeopardy as the evidence relied on by the prosecution had been adduced in an earlier case.
Lim, his wife Betty Chew and businesswoman Phang Li Koon are facing corruption charges related to a RM11.6 million dormitory project.
No News Is Bad News reproduces below a news report on the court proceedings:
High Court rejects bid by Guan Eng and wife to strike out graft charges
Predeep Nambiar-03 May 2024, 10:14 AM
No double jeopardy in RM11.6 million dorm project case, says judicial commissioner.
GEORGE TOWN: The High Court here has dismissed an application by former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng, his wife Betty Chew and businesswoman Phang Li Koon to strike out corruption charges related to a RM11.6 million dormitory project.
Judicial commissioner Rofiah Mohamad said the court rejected the defence’s contention that the accused suffered double jeopardy as the evidence relied on by the prosecution had been adduced in an earlier case.
“There’s a major difference in the alleged offence that took place, and it involved different persons. The case must go on,” she said in delivering her ruling.
Rofiah said while the defence claimed that 25 witnesses had been called to testify in a case involving Lim in 2016, no “findings” were made by the court then.
“There was no judicial determination based on evidence heard (in 2016),” she said.
She also said Lim’s previous acquittal was not based on judicial determination, but due to the prosecution’s withdrawal of charges which did not satisfy the conditions for double jeopardy.
Rofiah fixed July 26 for case management, and said the bail previously posted by the accused would be extended.
The defence had filed an application to strike out the case, citing the use of evidence from a previously unrelated and acquitted case involving Lim from 2018.
Lim, Chew and Phang face charges under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009, to which they pleaded not guilty in the High Court after the case was transferred from a sessions court in Butterworth.
According to the charges, Lim provided gratification to ensure that a company linked to Phang secured a dormitory project between 2013 and 2016. Chew is accused of laundering the proceeds in three instalments.
In her ruling, Rofiah said the attorney-general had full discretion to charge any person he deemed fit, and any challenge to that decision could only be by way of judicial review.
Outside court, Lim’s lawyer RSN Rayer said he would seek a stay in proceedings pending an appeal.
He reiterated the defence’s stance that reusing evidence from a case where a person was already secured an acquittal was a form of double jeopardy.
“It’s a constitutional point of law, and I believe that we will exhaust our avenues right up to the Federal Court.
“But for the moment, we will wait for the grounds of judgment to be provided, and then we will pursue the appeal and file an application for stay proceedings,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lim maintained his innocence.
“I will diligently work to clear my name, my wife’s name, and Phang Li Koon’s as well,” he said.
In an application to the High Court last year, Lim said the present charge was nearly identical to that of the Pinhorn Road bungalow case brought in 2016, which he was discharged and acquitted of two years later.
He also said the documents to be adduced as evidence in the current case had been lifted from the bundle of evidence used in the 2016 bungalow case.
Lim identified 106 items in the prosecution’s evidence which he said were identical in both cases.
He also noted that 14 of the bundles of documents in the present case had formed part of the 37 bundles, comprising 7,724 pages, used in the 2016 bungalow case.
The charges against the couple and Phang involve the award of a RM11.6 million foreign workers’ dormitory project under the auspices of a Penang state agency.
Lim is accused of giving gratification worth RM372,009 to his wife via Excel Property Management & Consultancy Sdn Bhd to ensure that Magnificent Emblem Sdn Bhd was awarded the project at Juru and Batu Kawan.
Deputy public prosecutors Syed Faisal Syed Amir, Ashraf Adrin Kamarul and Shafiq Hasim prosecuted while Rayer, V Sithambaram, and Ruebankumar Asokan appeared for the defence.
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