KUALA LUMPUR: Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli denied attempting to "hide" his former bodyguard from the corruption trial of former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng.
The bodyguard, known only as Din, was accused by Lim's lawyer of being a key figure in the sequence of events relating to the RM2 million payment made to the Bagan member of parliament to secure a contract for the undersea tunnel project.
Zarul Ahmad, who is also the star witness, agreed with Lim's lawyer Haijan Omar's suggestion that if Din were called to testify in court, he could answer questions regarding the alleged payment.
Earlier, Haijan suggested that Zarul Ahmad had deliberately "concealed" the name of his bodyguard, who allegedly carried two bags, – each containing RM1 million – to the trunk of Zarul Ahmad's car in August 2017.
Zarul Ahmad, however, stated that he did not mention or bring up Din's name because the latter had returned to Indonesia, and he had no reason to "hide" him.
Zarul Ahmad said this during proceedings to challenge his credibility as a witness today (Friday).
The defence is claiming that his testimony in court was contradictory to his statements given during an interrogation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and in a court testimony concerning the fraud case of businessman G. Ganaraja, which involved RM19 million related to the same undersea tunnel case.
Haijan: In your testimony, you stated that you instructed the bodyguard named Din to place the bags containing money into the car.
Zarul Ahmad: Yes.
Haijan: Din played an important role... if he came to court, he would know how many bags of money were given.
Zarul Ahmad: Yes.
Haijan: This is different from your testimony in court, where you said that you personally went down from the office and carried the bags to the car.
Zarul Ahmad: I have already answered this question.
Haijan: You deliberately hid Din's name in court.
Zarul Ahmad: If he (Din) comes, it will be worse (for the defence).
When asked what he meant as "worse" for the defence, Zarul Ahmad said it was just his opinion.
In explaining the inconsistencies in his testimony, Zarul Ahmad said he was not in a stable mind when he gave his statement to the MACC because he had just been released from 11 days of police remand.
"I had just been released from police remand for 11 days before being re-arrested by the MACC and questioned for 11 hours.
"During those 11 days, I slept on a cement floor, even though I informed them that I had a back condition.
"When I was detained again, the MACC instructed me to separate my statements regarding the Gnanaraja case and this case (Lim Guan Eng)... I made three payments in July 2017... I was confused," he said.
Lim is facing four charges of using his position as the then Penang chief minister to help Zarul's company secure the undersea tunnel project for gratification.
He was accused of seeking 10 per cent of the profit to be made by the company.
He was also accused of receiving RM3.3 million for himself and causing two plots of land belonging to the state government to be disposed of to two companies linked to the undersea tunnel project.