Federal Court fixed Feb 7 next year for prosecution's IMDB-related forfeiture appeal hearing

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has fixed Feb 7 next year for hearing the prosecution's appeals to forfeit monies belonging to nine entities including Umno and Wanita MCA, allegedly linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (IMDB) funds.

The hearing date was fixed following case management before Federal Court deputy registrar Siti Hajar Mustaffa today.

Lawyer Gooi Yang Shuh, representing Habib Jewels Sdn Bhd, when contacted, confirmed the hearing date.

The Court of Appeal had also ruled against the prosecution and set aside the High Court decision that had allowed it to forfeit monies seized from Pahang Umno Liaison Committee.

On Sept 2, last year, the Court of appeal concluded that there was insufficient evidence to satisfy the court that the monies seized were the subject matter or evidence relating to the commission of an offence or proceeds of unlawful activities.

The court also said there was absence of link whatsoever between the monies in the bank account of the respondents and the funds allegedly misappropriated from IMDB.

It (the Court of Appeal) held that the offence under section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act has not been proven and that the monies sought to be forfeited were not traceable to the alleged offence of unlawful activity.

The court also held that even if the money received from Datuk Seri Najib Razak Najib was from unlawful activities, the High Court had correctly ruled that it could not be simply forfeited because the respondents had averred that the money given by Najib between 2012 and 2013 had already been spent after a period of five years and that the money seized in 2018 was from other lawful sources.

It alleged that the seized monies were the subject matter or evidence from proceeds of an unlawful activity allegedly committed by the former Prime Minister under section 4(1) of the Anti Money Laundering, Anti Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 and section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2009.

On the same day, the Court of Appeal panel comprising Justices Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, also allowed an appeal by Pahang Umno Liaison Committee to set aside a High Court decision which allowed the prosecution's application to forfeit RM2,479,300.18 seized from the committee.

-- BERNAMA