Judge Nor Bee Ariffin said this after hearing submissions from Lim’s lawyer Gobind Singh Deo and deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin.
“We need time to decide on this matter. In the meantime, the trial will proceed (in the sessions court) next Monday as scheduled,” she said.
Other judges who sat with Nor Bee were Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Hashim Hamzah.
Lim’s corruption case started at the sessions court on July 13 after the High Court turned down his bid to transfer the trial to the higher court. Eight prosecution witnesses have already testified since the trial started.
Lim was accused of using his position as chief minister to ask Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd’s (Zenith) senior director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli for a 10% cut of the profits which would be made from the roads and tunnel project.
The former finance minister is also accused of seeking RM3.3 million in kickbacks to appoint Zarul’s company to undertake the project.
He also faces two counts of dishonestly misappropriating RM208.7 million worth of state land to two companies.
Earlier, during submissions, Gobind said the defence wanted to transfer the undersea tunnel case to the higher court on grounds that they wanted to raise constitutional issues on Lim’s charges.
He said, previously, the defence in Lim’s bungalow case had won their appeal to strike down Section 62 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act (MACC), which required an accused person to provide his defence statement to the prosecution before the trial started.
Lim was previously accused of using his position to obtain gratification by purchasing a bungalow from businesswoman Phang Li Koon for RM2.8 million. Lim and Phang were acquitted in 2018.
“However, the prosecution filed an appeal on the Section 62 issue and the Federal Court ruled the provision to be constitutional in 2018.
“Even though there was a ruling, the court did not provide a written judgment on why they said Section 62 is valid,” Gobind said.
The lawyer also said that if the undersea tunnel case started before the sessions court, the final avenue of Lim’s appeal would be the Court of Appeal.
“They (Court of Appeal) are still bound by the 2018 Federal Court ruling,” Gobind added.
Wan Shaharuddin said the defence was attempting to “re-litigate” the Section 62 issue in this undersea tunnel case.
“The Section 62 issue has been settled in the accused’s (Lim) bungalow case,” he said, adding that it was an abuse of the court process to revisit the 2018 decision.