PUTRAJAYA – The Court of Appeal has set May 9 to hear the appeal by former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin and his family to overturn a high court’s dismissal of their application to obtain leave to commence a judicial review to challenge the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) probe into their financial affairs.
Senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin, when contacted, confirmed the appeal hearing date was fixed during a case management held today before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Norshakinah Ahmad Kamarudin.
Liew appeared for the attorney-general during the case management proceeding today, while lawyer Alicia Gomez represented Daim and his family.
Daim and his family filed the appeal on March 5, a day after the high court rejected their application.
On March 4, high court judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh ruled that Daim and his family failed to establish mala fide elements against the MACC officer who conducted the investigation.
Daim, 85, his wife Toh Puan Nai’mah Abdul Khalid, 66, and four children – Asnida, 62, Md Wira Dani, 45, Muhammed Amir Zainuddin, 28, and Muhammed Amin Zainuddin, 25 – along with Ilham Tower Sdn Bhd, filed the judicial review application on Jan 10.
They named the MACC and the public prosecutor as respondents.
In the application, they claimed that on December 30, 2023, the MACC issued a statement saying that an investigation against Daim had been opened based on information obtained from the Pandora Papers.
Daim said the Pandora Papers are confidential files that were leaked in 2021, revealing the names of owners of offshore companies, assets and bank accounts outside Malaysia’s jurisdiction, and that these files do not indicate any wrongdoing by him and his family.
Daim and his family are seeking, among other things, a court order for the MACC and its officers to cancel all investigations initiated against them from February 2023 till now, and also to cancel all notices issued by the MACC. – March 14, 2024