KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer who recorded the final statement of the late Ewein Bhd founder Datuk Ewe Swee Kheng agreed with Lim Guan Eng's defence in court that there are contradictions in the statement he recorded by hand with the businessman compared with Ewe's prior statements.

There are a total of six statements recorded from Ewe before he plunged to his death in the early hours of the morning from his condominium in Penang last Oct 5.

Four of them were recorded by Superintendent Muhammad Nazree Mansor, one of which is the final controversial one that Nazree took down by hand. The remaining two were recorded by another MACC officer.

Nazree, the 15th prosecution witness in Lim's undersea tunnel graft trial, initially disagreed with Lim's lead counsel Gobind Singh Deo that there were contradictions in the statements when he was quizzed on the matter and shown Ewe's previous statements.

However, as the senior lawyer highlighted the contradictions one by one, Nazree eventually agreed there were differences. At times, he said he had no knowledge of it when a perceived contradiction was pointed out to him.

Officer agrees Ewe's claim that Lim 'no longer untouchable' is illogical

One of the points raised by the defence to which Nazree agreed did not make sense was how Ewe had, according to Nazree's hand-written statement, described Lim as “no longer untouchable” because of the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, which the late businessman had cited as one of the reasons he was allegedly willing to give the additional statement.

Nazree agreed with Gobind that this was 'tak masuk akal' (illogical) because Ewe's final statement had been recorded on Aug 14, 2021, while the PH government had already fallen much earlier — in February 2020. Ewe's first statement to the MACC, given on July 3, 2021, was also after the PH government collapsed.

Below is part of their exchange:

Gobind: In the five statements recorded before Aug 14, [do you agree that] the witness had given evidence which is in contradiction with the one that you recorded on Aug 14?

Nazree: I disagree.

Gobind: Can you see that in Ewe's previous statements, he had mentioned that he got to know about the purported land that he wanted [to develop] from one Datuk Lee Chee Hoe, while in your handwritten statement he said he saw the said property from his house?

Nazree: I disagree.

Gobind: In Ewe's statement recorded in July 2021, he denied dealing with Lee or Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd (CZBUCG) director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli for the land?

Nazree: I agree.

Gobind: In that statement, Ewe agreed that [neither] Lim nor his wife had bought any house or property in the City of Dream project?

Nazree: Agree.

In the handwritten statement, Ewe said he wanted to offer units from the condominium he planned to build on the said land to Lim or his wife, if he obtained the plot.

The defence was questioning why Ewe did not relate in the handwritten statement that he had met several deputy public prosecutors earlier, to which Nazree said he could not comment as he had earlier been recording the statement of another witness.

Ewe's final statement was taken when MACC officers from the headquarters in Putrajaya went to Penang last August to meet him and several other witnesses. Ewe reportedly went to meet the MACC officers at 10am on Aug 14, but his statement was only recorded at 3pm.

Nazree also said he had taken down Ewe's final statement by hand as he had left his laptop at the hotel.

“However, procedurally I do not see any problems with recording the statement by hand,” Nazree further said during his cross-examination by Gobind.

It should be noted that Nazree had, in his court testimony just a day before, said he travelled from Putrajaya to Penang with several other MACC officers to meet Ewe in the state MACC office, and that they had not brought a laptop.

He also said he could not access any computer or laptop in the Penang MACC office as it was not a working day in the state when he met with Ewe on Aug 14, 2021, which was a Saturday.

Meanwhile, Nazree, in his Thursday testimony, further said he did not use the video recording room to record Ewe's final statement as he had to ask permission from the MACC security to do that.

“As Ewe is a witness, I decided to use one of the interrogation rooms,” he replied when Gobind asked him why the video recording room was not used.

Before the day's hearing ended with Nazree, Gobind told Sessions judge Azura Alwi that the defence was considering filing an application to call Nazree back due to his inconsistent testimony.

Lim's graft trial will continue before Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi on April 1.

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Late Ewein founder said Guan Eng no longer ‘untouchable’ after collapse of PH govt