KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be among the witnesses called to testify in the cheating trial of Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, the High Court heard today.Defence lawyer Wong Kian Kheong today read out the names of 12 members of the Cabinet from 2002 and the special economic adviser to the prime minister at the time, as among the witnesses he intends to examine.
Dr Ling was charged in July last year with knowingly deceiving the Cabinet into approving the land purchase for the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), which resulted in wrongful losses for the government.
The former MCA president also faces two alternative charges of deceiving the Cabinet into believing that the purchase at RM25 psf and the 7.5 per cent interest rate were acknowledged and agreed to by the government’s Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) despite knowing that there was no such agreement.
Dr Ling faces up to seven years’ jail and a fine if convicted of the principal charge under Section 418 of the Penal Code.
Wong is calling Cabinet members who were present at a meeting that gave retrospective approval for the development cost of the PKFZ project to balloon from RM1.088 billion to RM4.6 billion in 2007, and had given their statements to the police.
Among them are Tun Dr Lim Keng Yaik, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Datuk Seri Utama Dr Rais Yatim, Tan Sri Dr Leo Moggie anak Irok, and Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir.
According to minutes of a Cabinet meeting dated June 27, 2007 and chaired by Najib who was then the deputy prime minister, the Cabinet approved the cost increase to RM4,632,732,000.
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