Court of Appeal denies Daim, family’s judicial review bid to challenge MACC financial probe

PUTRAJAYA, May 9 — The Court of Appeal today rejected 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 for a judicial review challenging the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation into their financial affairs.

The three-judge panel led by Court of Appeal judge Datuk Azizah Nawawi made the unanimous decision after taking around an hour to deliberate following arguments from both the prosecution and defence.

The other judges on the panel were Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Azizul Azmi Adnan.

The defence team, led by former attorney-general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, argued on two matters; one in respect of investigative powers; and the other in respect of the prayers seeking to quash the criminal charges.

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The judges rejected the claims due to precedent.

“With regards to the investigative powers of the MACC, the application for an order to quash all investigations by MACC and for an order of prohibition directed against MACC to cease further investigations against the appellant... this court is bound by the decision of the Federal Court,” Azizah said, citing the supreme court’s call in similar past cases.

Citing Order 53 from the Rules of the Court 2012, she said that Daim’s case is not open for review because he who had once held much power as a former government official, is now under criminal investigation.

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“To hold otherwise, in our mind we would be exposing the criminal investigative process of all law enforcement agencies in the country. The constant judicial review would surely not have been the intention of Parliament.

“The same position was taken against the MACC vs Latheefa Koya where it stated the actions and decisions of public authority in exercise of his power in the course of a criminal investigation and inquiry is not open to judicial review.

“Therefore the answer to the question posed to this court is that the exercise of legitimate power and issuance of notice pursuant to Section 30 of the Act by the first appellant to the third appellant is not amenable to judicial review.

“The notice was issued to assist the appellants in the investigation of a corruption offence under Section 16(b) of the Act. To hold otherwise would expose the criminal investigative processes of all law enforcement agencies,” Azizah said.

On March 4, High Court judge Datuk 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 their 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 January 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.