PUTRAJAYA (Oct 12): Former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng has withdrawn his appeal for the undersea tunnel graft trial to be held at the High Court.
Lim filed a notice of discontinuance of appeal at the Federal Court on Wednesday (Oct 12) afternoon, ahead of the hearing of his appeal at the apex court on Thursday.
The discontinuance was confirmed by deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin and also Lim's counsel Haijan Omar from Messrs Gobind Singh Deo & Co.
Given the withdrawal, Lim’s graft trial, which has been ongoing at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court before judge Azura Alwi, will continue to be heard by her.
On July 12 last year, the High Court in KL rejected Lim’s bid to have the trial transferred to the High Court instead of the Sessions Court. Its decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal on Nov 16, resulting in Lim's scheduled appeal hearing on Thursday at the apex court.
If a trial is held at the Sessions Court, the final appeal process will take place at the Court of Appeal. But if it takes place at the High Court, under the two-tiered appeal process, the case will end at the Federal Court.
Lim was charged in his capacity as the then chief minister of Penang with having solicited gratification to help Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd secure the undersea tunnel project.
He is alleged to have sought 10% of the profit to be made by the company from its senior executive director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli.
Subsequently on Aug 10, Lim was charged in the Butterworth Sessions Court with using his position as the then chief minister of Penang to receive RM3.3 million in gratification for himself as an inducement for helping the company secure the project valued at RM6.3 billion.
On Sept 11, the Bagan MP was charged in the same court with two counts of having engineered two plots of land belonging to the Penang state government worth RM208.8 million to be disposed of to two companies linked to the state’s undersea tunnel project.
All the trials are presently being heard at the Sessions Court.