DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang has asked Swiss MPs to back a motion in Parliament to repatriate RM430 million in 1Malaysia Development Bhd-linked funds that was seized from Swiss banks.

“I have emailed Swiss MPs, asking them to support the motion,” he said in a statement today, adding that the ultimate goal is to channel back a portion of the allegedly stolen funds to an independent, non-governmental trust in Malaysia.

He said the fund is to “benefit Malaysians harmed by the 1MDB scandal”.

The Swiss Parliament is set to debate on Tuesday a motion calling for the repatriation of confiscated corruption-linked funds, including the 104 million Swiss francs (RM430 million) allegedly stolen and laundered from 1MDB.

Swiss lawmaker Sommaruga Carlo, of the Social Democratic Party, will table Motion 17.3547: Repatriation of confiscated corruption funds to the robbed populations.

Lim said it would be “inappropriate” to return the money to the Malaysian government, as “it is directly involved in the 1MDB scandal”.

“The RM430 million in 1MDB-linked funds confiscated from Swiss banks and financial companies should, instead, be held in a trust for the benefit of the people of Malaysia.”

He said “it would also be most improper and morally indefensible for the Swiss government to keep these monies for its own use, as it would set a bad international precedent in an era to declare and combat corruption as an international crime”.

Tuesday’s motion before the Swiss Parliament reads: “The Federal Council (cabinet) is instructed to repatriate to its country of origin, at least in part, profits unlawfully obtained in third-party countries by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, in accordance with the procedures of the Illegally Acquired Assets Act (SR 196.1) in the countries concerned.”

The motion was triggered by plans to absorb into the Swiss Treasury illicit funds linked to financial crimes, like in the 1MDB scandal, that were recovered by Swiss authorities.

“(The Swiss Treasury keeping the money) will be against the principle enunciated in the United Nations Convention Against Corruption 2003, that stolen corruption monies in foreign banks and institutions, like the stolen 1MDB-linked funds, should be repatriated back to Malaysia to benefit the victims of the 1MDB scandal – 30 million Malaysian people,” said Lim.

The repatriation of such funds hidden or stashed overseas, away from their country of origin, and their use to benefit the nationals harmed by such corrupt practices is a principle that has been accepted internationally as a result of the UN convention, which Malaysia signed in Mexico on December 9, 2003, and officially ratified on September 24, 2008.

A highlight of the convention is the inclusion of a specific chapter on asset recovery, aimed at returning assets to their rightful owners, including countries from which they had been taken illicitly.

Article 35 of the UN convention upholds the principle that “entities or persons, who have suffered damage as a result of an act of corruption, have the right to initiate legal proceedings against those responsible for that damage in order to obtain compensation”.

Lawmakers in the national council, the lower house of the Swiss federal assembly, are expected to vote on whether to repatriate the funds on Thursday. – March 11, 2018.