THE Kuala Lumpur High Court was told today the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation of Daim Zainuddin and his family cannot be challenged by judicial review.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan submitted that if the court allowed the review application, it would open the floodgates to challenge every other exercise of such function, leading to chaos and public disorder.

“Investigative powers cannot be challenged and if the judicial review is to be allowed, it will hamper the investigative process. For every investigation, a judicial review would be filed, and the investigations would not be completed.

“We submit that investigative powers cannot be reviewed by this court,” he said before judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh.

Shamsul said this was an objection raised by the attorney-general (AG) against Daim and his family’s application for leave to initiate a judicial review against the MACC probe.

Daim, 85, his wife Nai’mah Abdul Khalid, 66, and their four children, Asnida, 62, Md Wira Dani, 45, Muhammed Amir Zainuddin, 28, and Muhammed Amin Zainuddin, 25, along with Ilham Tower Sdn Bhd as the applicants, filed the application on January 10 and named the MACC and the public prosecutor first and second respondents.

Shamsul also submitted that the MACC’s power to issue freezes is an investigation mechanism provided for in part VI of section 44(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.

“Law enforcement agencies are vested with the power to issue an order to freeze a person’s property upon the fulfilment of some conditions,” he said.

Shamsul said a freeze order was only made when an enforcement agency has started an investigation of someone and when there was reasonable ground to suspect that the person either committed or was about to commit a terrorism financing offence, or that the property is the proceeds from an unlawful activity.

Tommy Thomas, representing the applicants, submitted that Daim and his family have not been made aware as to the factual allegations against them.

“The MACC only took Daim’s statement one and a half years after the release of the Pandora Papers. It was only in June 2023, close to two years after the Pandora Papers were released, that the MACC started ‘ramping up’ its actions against Daim and freezing his family’s assets,” he said.

Thomas said the MACC unlawfully kept his clients’ accounts frozen since June 7, raided and seized the 60-storey Ilham Tower on December 18, raided Daim’s previous residence, and seized 11 vehicles on January 3.

He said the former finance minister would be prejudiced if he was charged and tried in court.

“My client (Daim) is now 85 years old and to expect him to remember things from 26 years ago is unfair,” he said.

Wan Ahmad Farid fixed March 4 for a decision.

In the application, Daim and his family claimed that on December 30, the MACC issued a statement that an investigation against Daim had been opened based on information obtained from the Pandora Papers.

Daim said the Pandora Papers, which were files leaked in 2021 that revealed the names of owners of offshore companies, assets and bank accounts outside Malaysia’s jurisdiction, did not indicate any wrongdoing by him and his family.

The applicants were seeking a court order for the MACC and its officers to cancel all investigations initiated against them from February 2023 until now, and to cancel all notices issued by the MACC. – Bernama, January 16, 2024.