Dr M: Selective prosecution to blame for Lim’s case

KUALA LUMPUR: The previous government practised selective prosecution as it victimised many politicians from the then opposition bloc, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“There were many people who had done what Lim Guan Eng did but they were not selected.

“It (the previous government) selected Lim for a special purpose – to get rid of him,” said the Prime Minister on the sidelines of the Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry (CEPSI 2018) after his opening address yesterday.

He said this when asked about criticism against the High Court’s decision on Sept 3 to acquit Lim of corruption charges during his time as the Penang chief minister.

Lim, now the Finance Minister, and businesswoman Phang Li Koon were charged in 2016 over the alleged conversion of land from agriculture to residential status, and the purchase of a plot of land and a bungalow at below market value.

Dr Mahathir also noted that Lim’s case was not the same as that of former Selangor mentri besar Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo, who was jailed one year in 2015 after he was found guilty of obtaining two plots of land and a bungalow unit in Section 7, Shah Alam.

Following Lim’s acquittal, various quarters took Attorney General Tommy Thomas to task over it.

However, on Sept 4, deputy public prosecutor Datuk Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria, who is the head of the appellate and trial division at the Attorney General’s Chambers, clarified that Thomas had recused himself in all deliberations in relation to the case.

Mohamad Hanafiah said he decided on the representations from Lim and Phang and the withdrawal was due to the substantially weakened evidence in the case.