BUTTERWORTH: The corruption trial of former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng, his wife, Betty Chew, and her associate, Phang Li Koon, has been deferred for another two months.
This was after the court allowed a two-month extension in October to give time to the defence to go through “voluminous” documents.
Lim, Chew and Phang were earlier charged with receiving bribes in connection with an RM11.6 million project for foreign workers’ dormitories. They pleaded not guilty.
At the Sessions Court here today, deputy public prosecutor Shafiq Hasim said the new extension request was from the prosecution to allow it to submit five more documents. He did not say what they were.
He said the extension was also to allow the prosecution to print all the documents submitted so far, as requested by the defence. The documents had earlier been served in compact discs.
Judge Ahmad Azhari Abdul Hamid allowed the request and set Feb 19 for mention to decide on the trial dates.
RSN Rayer appeared for Lim and Chew, and Ruebankumar Asokan appeared for Phang.
The trio were charged on Aug 11 with offences related to illegal proceeds received in Chew’s bank account as money taken to ensure the dormitory project was awarded to a certain company.
They were charged under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009.