KUALA LUMPUR: Lim Guan Eng has lodged a police report against a key witness in his ongoing corruption trial involving the Penang undersea tunnel project.
The former Penang chief minister's lead counsel, Haijan Omar, informed the Sessions Court on Thursday (Sept 19) that his client made the report at the Sentul police headquarters on Aug 23.
"My client lodged a report regarding a conflict with a witness. The report was made after my client learned of a previous report filed by Chan Eng Leong on June 19, 2024," he said.
Haijan explained that the individual alleged in his report that certain parties had told him to cooperate and provide a false statement about Lim to avoid further trouble.
"My client made the report at the Sentul police station because he believed that both the conflict and the report indicated an attempt to persecute him," he said, adding that he would submit a copy of his client's police report to the court.
According to Wan Shaharuddin, who also read Lim's report, the individual alleged that he was threatened by unknown persons while in the courthouse lockup. This led Lim to believe that certain parties wanted to frame him with unfounded criminal allegations.
However, Wan Shaharuddin questioned the relevance of submitting the report, arguing that an ongoing trial and impeachment proceeding should not involve the police.
He stated that bringing the external report into this trial was not directly relevant and unfairly implicated his witness.
"This is an action that interferes with court proceedings. This would be considered subjudice as the case is already before the court," he said.
In response, Haijan said it was his client's right to inform the court of his report.
"My client believes there is a relationship between the cases. This is not to interfere with the court proceedings. We know the proceedings are ongoing. It is my responsibility to inform the court that the report was made," he said.
Judge Azura Alwi took note of and accepted the report.
"I believe the report will not affect the proceedings. It is subject to police investigation," she said, adding that she had no intention to see its content for now.
The impeachment proceeding into Zarul Ahmad’s conflicting statements with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for this trial and a previous cheating case in Shah Alam involving businessman G. Gnanaraja continues.
