DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng received a 2017 WhatsApp messages forensic report from the prosecution team to assist in his graft trial, the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court heard today. 

Deputy public prosecutor Farah Yasmin Salleh had engaged with Lim’s lawyers on April 18 on the matter, Malaysiakini reported.

Lim’s lawyer Haijan Omar told judge Azura Alwi they were given the report linked to the ongoing corruption trial against the accused related to the island state’s RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel project.

On April 5, judge Azura ordered the prosecution team to produce WhatsApp messages exchanged between two witnesses.

She had allowed Lim’s discovery application and said the messages can reveal the full facts of the case against the former Penang chief minister. 

“The court finds there are two ‘versions’ as to who was the recipient of the RM2 million payment.

“The full facts need to be presented before the court so that the truth can be known,” she said. 

Previously, Lim’s lawyer Gobind Singh Deo argued that the prosecution had suppressed vital evidence that could clear his client.

Gobind said the prosecution had failed to deliver copies of WhatsApp conversations between two businessmen – G. Gnanaraja and Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli – who were alleged to have paid Lim RM2 million in 2017.

Gobind said the evidence was important to prove the corruption claims made against Lim were baseless.  

He said the RM2 million Lim is accused of receiving was actually meant for then prime minister Najib Razak.  

Lim, 62, is facing an amended charge of using his position as chief minister to accept a bribe of RM3.3 million to help a company owned by Zarul to obtain a construction project worth RM6.3 billion at the Office of the Chief Minister of Penang, 28th Floor, Komtar, George Town, between January 2011 and August 2017. 

On the second amended charge, Lim is accused of soliciting a bribe from Zarul of 10% of the company’s profits as an inducement for securing the project, supposedly during a meeting near The Gardens Hotel, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City in Kuala Lumpur in March 2011. 

Lim also faces two charges of disposing of two plots of land worth RM209 million owned by the Penang government to two companies allegedly linked to the undersea tunnel project. – May 10, 2023.