Ramkarpal Singh told the sessions court that Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigating officer Zulhilmi Ramli came to court only to “give his opinions” on the case.

“He told the court that this project is a ‘land scam’ and an attempt to ‘deceive’ the public.

“It is not for him to come to court and give opinions,” he said, adding that Zulhilmi was not an expert witness on such an issue.

Ramkarpal urged the court to expunge parts of Zulhilmi’s written testimony as they were his personal opinions.

Zulhilmi had told the court that he believed the RM6.3 million project was a “land scam” and that the Penang government was a losing party.

In response, deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said Zulhilmi was not called to testify as an expert witness.

“His evidence was based on facts established from what he had investigated (in the past).

“He never said things that touched on the guilt or innocence of the accused (Lim).”

Wan Shaharuddin added that the prosecution had called 37 other witnesses throughout the past five years and the court ought to look at their evidence as well.

“The investigating officer (Zulhilmi) is not a rubber stamp witness and the court is not bound solely by his evidence,” he said.

Fellow deputy public prosecutor Mahadi Jumaat said the defence can challenge Zulhilmi’s investigations during cross-examination later.

Trial judge Azura Alwi then set Nov 12 to decide on the defence’s application to expunge parts of Zulhilmi’s testimony.

Lim is standing trial on charges of using his position as then Penang chief minister to ask businessman Zarul Ahmad Zulkifli for a 10% cut of 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 state land worth RM208.7 million.