Businessman Zarul Ahmad Zulkifli said he was one of the last people questioned by MACC in 2018, and that he was remanded for 11 days.

“MACC showed me all the documents they had (related to the project). They had already gathered strong evidence from various parties,” Zarul told the court.

“I had no choice but to tell them what happened.”

He said he was neither pressured nor forced to make false claims against Lim.

Zarul also said that while MACC and the Inland Revenue Board had raided his office in 2017, they only seized documents.

He said a safe containing cash was left untouched. He claimed that the money was for emergencies and supporting candidates ahead of the 2018 general election.

Lim is charged with using his position as then Penang chief minister to ask Zarul for a 10% cut of the profits from the undersea tunnel project and accepting RM3.3 million in kickbacks from the businessman.

He is also accused of two counts of dishonestly misappropriating RM208.7 million worth of state land.

Earlier, Lim’s lawyer, Haijan Omar, told the court the defence would resubmit Lim’s defence statement as the prosecution had confirmed it was not in its records.

The hearing before judge Azura Alwi continues on Aug 26.