GEORGE TOWN • The Penang High Court yesterday said a trial date to hear the two corruption charges against Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng would be set on Dec 6.

The case came up for a mention yesterday but the court deferred a decision to set the date after documents were found not in order.

Lim's lead counsel Gobind Singh Deo, speaking to reporters at a press conference yesterday, said Judge Hadhariah Syed Ismail had also ruled that both Lim and businesswoman Phang Li Khoon - who is also accused of corruption - do not need to be present that day, reported The Malay Mail Online.

Mr Deo, explaining the reason behind the court's decision to move the mention to a later date, said: "The Attorney-General was supposed to serve us documents that are used for the charges, and they gave us a CD that contains 13,000 pages without an index."

Mr Deo added that the lack of indexing made it difficult for Lim's defence team to collate the evidence that the Attorney-General had submitted.

He said they have since requested that the Attorney-General's Office submit the index for the documents. "The judge has stressed the importance of getting all the documents in order for the case," said Mr Deo.

Lim has been charged with abuse of power and corruption over allegedly approving a rezoning application to convert agricultural land into a residential zone by a company, Magnificent Emblem, in July 2014.

The case is linked to a second charge against Lim over the purchase of a bungalow from the company director in July last year at below-market value.

Lim is accused of purchasing a house from Phang at RM2.8 million (S$922,000), much lower than the property's estimated market value of RM4.27 million on July 28 last year. Phang, a director at Magnificent Emblem, has been charged with abetting Lim in the purchase of the property on Pinhorn Road.