PUTRAJAYA: Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and businesswoman Phang Li Koon have to file their defence before the commencement of their corruption trial at the High Court, the Federal Court ruled today.
A five-man bench led by Chief Justice Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif unanimously made the decision after allowing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) appeal against the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which stated that Section 62 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act is unconstitutional.
Raus, in his judgment, said Section 62 of the MACC Act, which requires accused persons to disclose their defence statements to the prosecution before the beginning of the trial, is constitutional as the Section does not preclude the defence from tendering additional documents during trial as provided under the Evidence Act.
"Section 62 relates to pre-trial procedure relating to delivery of documents by defence to the prosecution, not on the admissibility of evidence.
"It does not deprive the defence from submitting additional documents during trial."
He added that under Section 62, delivery of documents must be done before commencement of the trial.
"Therefore we allow the Appeal as we are of the view that Section 62 is constitutional. We set aside the order of the Court of Appeal and reinstate the order of the High court and make an order for trial to proceed," the judge said.
The other judges who presided were Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin, Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop, Tan Sri Ramly Ali and Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed.
The court fixed Jan 10 for case management of Lim and Phang's corruption case at the Penang High Court.
On Aug 7, the Court of Appeal ruled that Section 62 of the MACC Act was ultra vires when read against Article 5(1) and 8(1) of the Federal Constitution, thus deeming it unconstitutional.
The decision was made after the court allowed appeals by Lim and Phang to declare Section 62 as unconstitutional in their corruption cases.
On March 7, the High Court dismissed Lim and Phang's application after ruling that Section 62 of the MACC Act was constitutional and valid as it did not impede the accused's rights to a fair trial.
Lim pleaded not guilty to corruption charges in relation to the conversion of land from agricultural to residential and the purchase of a plot of land and bungalow at below-market price on June 30 last year.
Lim was charged with abuse of power where he had used his position as Chief Minister to gain gratification for himself and his wife, Betty Chew Gek Cheng, by approving the application for conversion of agriculture land to a public housing zone in southwest Penang to a company, Magnificient Emblem Sdn Bhd.
He allegedly committed the offence while chairing the Penang State Planning Committee meeting at the operations room, Level 28, Komtar building here, on July 18, 2014.