Daim, wife should file application to quash charge at criminal court — SFC
LUMPUR: The High Court was yesterday told that the application by former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin and his wife Toh Puan Na’imah Abdul Khalid to strike out the charge made against them for failing to declare their assets should have been made in the criminal court and not in the civil court.
Senior federal counsel (SFC) Liew Horng Bin said if the application to quash the charge is heard in the Civil Court through a judicial review, all evidence related to the case will be revealed in the court concerned.
“Therefore the application to quash the charge should be made in the Criminal Court. The application to stay proceeding (of a criminal case) should be done in the relevant (criminal) court,” he said during the online proceeding before Judge Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh.
Also at the proceeding was lawyer Mervyn Lai representing Daim and Na’imah.
The court then ordered the parties involved to file additional submissions before or on March 1.
Earlier, Liew told the court that he did not object to the application by Daim and Na’imah to amend several paragraphs in their application for leave to initiate a judicial review against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation against them.
The amendment is about the notice served under Section 36(1) of the MACC Act 2009 to Daim and Na’imah.
Daim, 85, Nai’mah, 66, and their children Asnida, 62, Md Wira Dani, 45, Muhammed Amir Zainuddin, 28, and Muhammed Amin Zainuddin, 25, as well as Ilham Tower Sdn Bhd had applied for the leave on Jan 10.
They named MACC and the public prosecutor as the first and second respondents.
On Jan 16, the application for leave was heard before Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh who fixed March 4 to deliver his ruling.
On Jan 29, Daim was charged in the Sessions Court here with failing to comply with a notice to declare his assets, which include several luxury vehicles, companies and properties in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Kedah.