KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — The government will not be appealing against a High Court ruling that saw former Transport Minister Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik being acquitted of cheating charges over the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project.
“No appeal,” lead prosecutor Datuk Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah told The Malay Mail Online in a brief text message today.
Tun Abdul Majid, who is also the Deputy Solicitor-General II, did not provide the reasons behind the Attorney-General Chambers’ decision to not proceed with an appeal in the high-profile case.
On October 25, High Court judge Datuk Ahmadi Asnawi today ruled that Dr Ling’s lawyers had managed to raise reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case and acquitted the former MCA president from the cheating charges hanging over his head for the past few years.
The trial started in August 2011, with Dr Ling ordered to enter his defence on March 9 last year while the defence closed its case on June 20 this year.
Dr Ling, who was Malaysia’s transport minister for 17 years from January 1986 to May 2003, was charged in July 2010 with deceiving the Cabinet into approving the land purchase for the PKFZ project, despite knowing that the approval would result in wrongful losses for the government.
Dr Ling also faced two alternative charges of deceiving the Cabinet into believing that the land purchase’s terms — at RM25 psf plus 7.5 per cent interest — had the acknowledgment and agreement of the Land Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) despite knowing that there was no such agreement.
The criminal offences were allegedly committed between September 25 and November 6 in 2002, a few months before he stopped serving as a transport minister.
In the trial over the Cabinet’s 2002 approval of the Port Klang Authority (PKA)’s purchase of the 999.3 acres of land from PKFZ’s turnkey developer Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB), the prosecution had called 25 witnesses while the defence had called nine witnesses.
In his 42-page judgment, Ahmadi went through the evidence presented by Dr Ling’s lawyers, making repeated references to the testimonies of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan Onn, Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir Fong - all of whom were Cabinet ministers during the former MCA president’s term in the Transport Ministry.
Ahmadi noted that the prosecution had to prove that Dr Ling had cheated the Cabinet by concealing the fact that the additional 7.5 per cent interest rate was not included in the purchase price of RM25 psf for the land, in order for the first charge and the first alternative charge to succeed.
But the judge pointed to the testimonies of Abdul Kadir, Dr Mahathir and Fong, who had all said that they knew and were aware that the 7.5 per cent interest was not included in the purchase price based on Cabinet papers presented to them.
“None of them harboured any belief that they have been misled, deceived, induced or cheated by the accused in respect of the said purchase,” the judge said of the three defence witnesses, noting that they had not lodged any police reports saying that they were cheated by Dr Ling.
In reference to the second alternative charge where Dr Ling was alleged to have made a misrepresentation to Cabinet, Ahmadi said that a note from the Transport Ministry did not contain anything to suggest that JPPH had certified other terms of the land purchase besides the RM25 psf price.
“There was no mention at all that the 7.5 per cent interest rate was certified and agreed by JPPH,” Ahmadi wrote.
He also noted that there was no documentary evidence from Dr Ling or evidence from five witnesses — prosecution witnesses Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri and Datuk Seri Mohd Effendi Norwawi, as well as Fong, Dr Mahathir and Abdul Kadir — to show that the RM25 psf price and the 7.5 interest rate were certified and agreed to by JPPH.
Dr Mahathir, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, has held that post from 1981 until October 31, 2003.
He was also then finance minister from June 2001 to 2003.
The PKFZ project which was proposed by Dr Ling in 1997, had an initial cost of RM1.1 billion that then ballooned to over RM4.6 billion in 2007.
Besides Dr Ling, a few individuals have since been charged in court, including his successor as transport minister, Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy.
The cheating trial of Chan, a former MCA deputy president, has yet to be heard.
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