KUALA LUMPUR: The person presented to journalists on Tuesday was not the missing key witness in the V K Lingam case, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.

The opposition got the wrong witness, he said when met at parliament lobby yesterday.

On Tuesday, R Sivarasa (Subang-PKR) and several other opposition members of parliament brought Jayanthi LG Naidu to parliament and said she was the missing witness in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation into the trip to New Zealand by Datuk V K Lingam and former Chief Justice Tun Eusoff Chin in 1994.

Jayanthi claimed she had handled the ticket bookings and payment for the trip as ordered by Lingam. In her testimony to the Royal Commission of Inquiry, she also alleged that Lingam's office had written judgments for several of Lingam's cases.

"It is unreasonable for the opposition to assume that the MACC was looking for Jayanthi.

"I will say categorically 'No', she is not the one. The witness we are looking for is not in the country and we are looking for him. I say 'him', because it is not 'her'," said Nazri.

He said while the MACC had taken into account Jayanthi's testimony in the Lingam case, she was not the witness that the MACC was looking for in order for the case to proceed. "How can they know she is who we are looking for? It is our witness, not theirs.

"Right now I am not at liberty to reveal his identity. He can also be termed as a whistle-blower, we need to protect him," said Nazri, adding that the government would continue to pursue the Lingam case no matter how long it took.

"If it is a corruption case, it means it will never be closed. There is no period of limitation.

"Even if he (witness) returns home in 10 years' time, we can proceed with the case. The status is only 'no further action' (NFA), until and unless we can get him," Nazri said.