Lawyer: MACC asked to search Guan Eng’s house midway through questioning

(MMO) – Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and his wife, Betty Chew, were in the midst of giving their statements when anti-corruption officers announced they wanted to search the couple’s house, said lawyer RSN Rayer (pic).

The couple, accompanied by lawyers Rayer and Ramkarpal Singh respectively, were initially called in to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) office here yesterday morning for further investigations.

“We arrived at MACC at 10am as they had asked CM and Betty to go in for further investigations and we were there until about 2.45pm when they requested to conduct a search of their house in Pinhorn Road,” Rayer told Malay Mail Online today.

He said they then went with six MACC officials to Lim’s house at about 3pm yesterday.

The search was concluded an hour later.

“They conducted a procedural search of the house and when we asked the purpose of the search, they did not tell us. They also did not confiscate anything from the search,” he said.

It is believed the previous owner of the house, Phang Li Koon, was also called in for further investigations at the MACC here yesterday, the same time as Lim and Chew.

Rayer said the officers did not indicate if Lim and Chew will be called in again.

“They also did not indicate the status of their investigations into this and we did everything to cooperate with their investigations,” he said.

Lim is being investigated for alleged corruption in the purchase of his RM2.8 million house, which Tasek Gelugor MP Datuk Shabudin Yahaya claimed was below market value.

His house purchase was also linked to the sale of state land in Taman Manggis to Kuala Lumpur International Dental Centre (KLIDC).

Earlier this month, MACC had questioned Lim and Chew over two full days.

Phang was also called in early this month to the MACC in Putrajaya to give her statement.