Kong Choy trial postponed
KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — The cheating trial of Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy has been postponed to May 21 to allow lawyers time to study an application made to recuse the presiding trial judge.
The High Court was also told today that Chan’s lawyers had written a letter of representation to the Attorney-General on March 20 on matters pertaining to the trial.
Chan: Charges linked to Port Klang Free Zone scandal. — File picHigh Court judge Datuk Zamani Abdul Rahim said the full hearing will commence next month to allow the prosecution time to study the letter to the A-G as well as the notice to recuse Zamani.
“The prosecution has received the letter and looked at it in detail,” deputy public prosecutor Datuk Nordin Hassan told the court. “We need to check the facts and data as it involves documents from the date of the original charge in 2004.”
The contents of the letter, however, remained confidential, said Chan’s lawyer, Datuk Tan Hock Chuan.
“We wrote a letter of representation to the A-G on March 20, 2012. We are still waiting for a reply from the A-G’s chambers,” Tan told reporters.
“We feel that a little bit more time needs to be given to the prosecution, to consider the letter of representation.”
When asked why a notice had been filed to recuse the judge, Tan said: “It is just a transfer of case, we want it transferred to one of the KL criminal courts.
“We just want a Kuala Lumpur judge, and he (Zamani) is from Penang. It is nothing personal.”
Chan, the former transport minister, claimed trial in the KL High Court on November 4 last year to three amended charges of cheating in connection with the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.
Under the amended charges, Chan is accused of deceiving former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi into approving Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) as the turnkey developer to carry out the transshipment hub in his capacity as the then transport minister.
He is accused of having hidden information that the development costs would be financed through a bond by KDSB through Transshipment Megahub Sdn Bhd.
Chan is said to have committed the offence between February 24, 2004, and March 29, 2006.
