PKFZ case: Liong Sik acquitted of cheating charges: KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik was acquitted today of cheating charges over a land purchase for the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project, a multi-billion ringgit scandal that saw the former transport minister put to trial for over two years. High Court judge Datuk Ahmadi Asnawi ruled this morning that Dr Ling’s lawyers had managed to raise reasonable doubt in the case and declared the former MCA president free from blame. The judge’s decision was met with a brief applause from Dr Ling’s supporters inside the packed courtroom. When met outside the courtroom, Dr Ling declined to comment. The over two-year trial had started in August 2011, with Dr Ling ordered to enter his defence in March 9 last year while the defence closed its case in 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 the former MCA president stopped serving as a transport minister. If convicted on the first charge, he would have been liable to a punishment under section 418 of the Penal Code of a maximum jail term of seven years, or a fine, or both. The alternative charges carry a lighter sentence under section 417 of the Penal Code with a jail term of up to five years, or a fine, or both. 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 eight witnesses. At the clarification stage of athe trial last month, Dr Ling’s lead counsel Wong Kian Kheong told the court that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad were among five Cabinet ministers who had testified that they were not deceived by Dr Ling. He listed these five ministers as defence witnesses Dr Mahathir, Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan Onn, Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir and prosecution witnesses Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri and Datuk Seri Mohd Effendi Norwawi. 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. More to come dlvr.it/4Byz9N
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 02:06:43 +0000
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