Reporters try to get Dr Ling to say a few words outside the courtroom today, May 3, 2011.
The high-profile trial of Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik has been postponed to August 1 after the prosecution team argued that it needed more time to declassify documents relating to the case.
Dr Ling has been charged with cheating Putrajaya over the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone land project scandal.
The lead prosecutor from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Datuk Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah, said the prosecution had identified 23 documents from Cabinet meetings from March 24, 1999 to July 4, 2007, but needed time to get clearance from the various ministries to declassify the documents.
“There is a lot of information involved, some which cannot be declassified. The prosecution will use the documents as evidence.
“We’ll be relying on these documents to support our charges, and we just got clearance from the Cabinet. The declassifying process is not simple, at least two months,” said Tun Abdul Majid today.
Trial judge Datuk Ahmadi Asnawi was not pleased with this, and warned the prosecution team that this postponement would be the last.
“Next time you must be prepared, on August 1 I will hear the case even if you do not have the documents,” said the judge.
The documents, which include minutes of Cabinet meetings, Cabinet committee meetings and post-Cabinet papers on the Port Klang development project, are classified under the Official Secrets Act.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said last year he would be able to release them by mid-January this year.
Dr Ling, a former MCA president, was charged on July 29 last year with concealing the fact that the Finance Ministry’s Valuation and Property Service Department had valued the land for the troubled port project at RM25psf for a repayment period of 10 years, or RM25.82psf for a repayment period of 15 years, including interest chargeable for the repayment period.
He was charged in the Putrajaya Sessions Court under section 418 of the Penal Code with “cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may be caused to a person whose interest the offender is bound to protect”.
He is alleged to have committed offence at the fourth floor of the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya between September 25 and November 6, 2002.
Dr Ling faces up to seven years in jail and a fine if convicted.
He also faces an alternative charge, under section 417, of cheating the government by misleading the Cabinet on the land acquisition for the same project, at the same place and time.
The alternative charge carries a lesser sentence of up to five years behind bars and a fine.
Tun Abdul Majid said today that 155 documents have been given to the defence team so far.
Ahmadi also ordered the prosecution to hand over their list of witnesses to the defence team by the end of this week.
It is now understood that 40 witnesses will testify in this trial.
Lead defence lawyer Wong Kian Kheong said that his client was ready to defend himself, with or without the documents.
“He (Dr Ling) wants to vindicate himself,” said Wong.
The trial will begin proper on August 1- August 12.
