KUALA LUMPUR: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng's corruption trial pertaining to the Penang undersea tunnel project will be heard at the Sessions Court here tomorrow.
This was after High Court judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin dismissed the former Finance Minister's last minute effort to transfer his case to the High Court.
Jamil, in his ruling, said Lim, who is former Penang chief minister, had failed to provide any exceptional circumstances for his case to be heard at the High Court.
"I believe the Sessions Court judge is capable of determining the questions of law raised by the defence. The Sessions Court has all the experience to hear the corruption charges," he said.
Jamil also dismissed Lim's counsel Gobind Singh Deo's request to postpone tomorrow's proceedings pending appeal at the Court of Appeal.
Lim's trial dates had been set by the Sessions Court in December, last year.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin objected to Lim's application, saying the defence was just attempting to delay the trial set to begin tomorrow.
"This is an abuse of court process as the defence wants to re-argue an issue which has already been decided at the Federal Court.
"The accused had more than seven months since the day he was charged to apply to transfer the case but did nothing… why only now?"
The DPP was responding to Gobind's arguments that his client wanted to transfer the case to the High Court as the defence wanted to raise several questions of law related to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act.
He said the defence could raise the questions of law up to the Federal Court, as opposed to only the Court of Appeal if the trial was held at the Sessions Court.
On Aug 7, last year, Lim was charged with soliciting a bribe from the company awarded the contract to undertake the controversial RM6.3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project.
The Bagan member of parliament was alleged to have asked for 10 per cent of the potential profits from Datuk Zarul Zulkifli and in return, would help Zarul's company, Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd, be appointed to carry out the main roads and tunnels project in Penang.
On Aug 10, the same year, Lim was charged at the Butterworth Sessions Court in Penang, with abusing his power to obtain a RM3.3 million bribe as an inducement to appoint Zarul's company to implement the RM6,341,383,702 undersea tunnel and three paired roads projects in the state.
On Sept 11, in the same court, he was charged with two more counts of misappropriation of property by disposing two plots of land belonging to the Penang government in Bandar Tanjong Pinang worth RM208 million to Ewein Zenith Sdn Bhd and Zenith Urban Development Sdn Bhd – companies linked to the tunnel project.
Lim allegedly committed the offences between 2011 and 2017.