KUALA LUMPUR – Former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, family members and more than a dozen companies linked to them have filed for judicial review to challenge the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) freezing of their bank accounts.
Those named among the six respondents are Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki.
Daim, his wife Toh Puan Na’imah Abdul Khalid and four other family members are claiming that Anwar had “exerted his influence” on the MACC to “carry out his personal agenda” against the applicants.
They also claim that the MACC’s seizure of their bank accounts on June 7 last year was carried out in bad faith, and that the anti-graft agency still has not told them of any specific money-laundering offence.
Their application was filed at the high court here, which will hear the matter tomorrow before judge Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh.
In court documents, the applicants claimed that the MACC’s seizure notice was due to Anwar’s “influence” on the anti-graft agency to “carry out his personal agenda”, because Daim was the finance minister who held office while Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister from 1981 till 2003.
“It is publicly known that Anwar and Dr Mahathir had chequered history where the feud between these two is not bizarre.
“Unfortunately, the feud is not limited to the two individuals but it also (seemingly) involved other individuals including Daim, who was accused by Anwar to have enriched himself when he was in office.
“Anwar has (also) issued several public statements against the applicants (Daim and his family), which shows that he has a tendency to claim or presume that the applicants are guilty (of committing offences under the law) when there is no such finding made by any judicial body at all material times.”
Daim and family, and the 18 companies listed, are also seeking a certiorari order to cancel the MACC’s seizure of their bank accounts, which was made under Section 50 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, and a mandamus order for the MACC to unfreeze their bank accounts.
They hold that the freeze order was invalid, void and made with malicious intent (mala fide), which is an abuse of the legal process.
They said the MACC’s seizure notice, issued against them on June 7 last year, was to have lapsed after 90 days on September 5 the same year, but their accounts remained frozen till now.
Their letters dated February 16 and March 11 this year to seek clarification from the MACC also went unanswered.
Daim’s children named as applicants in the bid for judicial review are Asnida Abdul Daim and Wira Dani Abdul Daim from his first marriage, while Muhammed Amir Zainuddin Daim and Muhammed Amin Zainuddin Daim are from his marriage to Na’imah.
In a supporting affidavit, Na’imah said the MACC was unreasonable to have asked her sons Amir and Amin to declare their assets from the year 1997, given that the former was only 2-years-old at the time, and the latter had not even been born.
In January, Daim and Na’imah were charged, separately, with failure to declare their assets to the MACC.
They then sought a court declaration that the MACC’s probe into their wealth was unconstitutional and void, but their application to commence a judicial review against the agency was thrown out by the Court of Appeal on May 9. – June 11, 2024