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AFTER six years of prosecution, the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court allowed an amendment to be made to one of the four charges facing Lim Guan Eng in the Penang undersea tunnel corruption case.
Judge Azura Alwi allowed the prosecution team's application to amend the first charge by removing the word 'received'.
The amended charge was then read out to the former Penang Chief Minister, and he pleaded not guilty.
In delivering her decision, Azura was satisfied that the amendment was necessary to ensure that the charge was in line with the legal provisions under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009.
She said that although the amendment was only submitted at the final stage of the prosecution case, the court was of the view that the matter would not prejudice or cause any injustice to the accused.
"The parties have the right under Section 162 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to apply to recall any witnesses as appropriate following the amendment," she said.
In the previous proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin argued that Section 23 does not require the element of 'receiving' or 'requesting', but rather focuses on the purpose of the bribe.
“The sum of RM3.3 million remains in the charge and does not prejudice the accused. The accused's defence remains the same that he never received the money,” he said.
However, the application was opposed by the defence on the grounds that the word `receiving', which was sought to be dropped, was an important component of the original charge and had formed the basis of the entire defence throughout the trial.
The proceedings then continued with the hearing of the 38th prosecution witness, investigating officer, MACC Senior Superintendent Zulhilmi Ramli.
According to the first amended charge, Guan Eng is accused of using his position as Chief Minister of Penang to receive a bribe of RM3.3 million to help a company owned by Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli be appointed to implement the Main Roads and Tunnels Construction Project in Penang worth RM6,341,383,702.
The offence was allegedly committed between January 2011 and August 2017 at the Chief Minister's Office in the state.
For the second amended charge, he is accused of soliciting a bribe of 10 per cent of the profits to be made from Zarul Ahmad as remuneration for the same project, which allegedly took place near The Gardens Hotel, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City between 12.30 midnight and 2 am in March 2011.
He also faces two charges of causing two lots of land owned by the Penang State Government worth RM208.8 million to be disposed of to a developer company in relation to the same project at the Penang State Land and Mines Office, Komtar, on 17 February 2015 and 22 March 2017. – May 6, 2026
