Malaysia’s former finance minister Lim Guan Eng was charged on Friday with corruption over a 1.5 billion undersea tunnel project, with his party slamming the move as political persecution by the new government.
Lim, who was part of a reformist government ousted in a political coup in March, pleaded not guilty to a charge of soliciting 10% of potential profits in 2011 as a bribe for the contract. He was detained late Thursday by the anti-corruption agency after they summoned him for questioning over the project in northern Penang state.
The project was approved during Lim’s tenure as Penang chief minister from 2008-2018, before he became Malaysia’s finance minister. The 7.2 kilometre (4.5 miles) tunnel project from Penang island to peninsular Malaysia includes several highways and is to be funded through a land swap of reclaimed prime land.
