PETALING JAYA: Lawyers acting for the late Tun Daim Zainuddin’s wife Na’imah Abdul Khalid will be challenging the seizure of Ilham Tower in court immediately.
In a statement Thursday (June 5), lawyers Rajesh Nagarajan and Sachpreetraj Singh Sohanpal described the action by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as contrary to the rule of law.
ALSO READ: MACC seizes Ilham Tower again
“This is vindictive, unlawful, and a blatant abuse of power by the MACC. This is also the most ridiculous action yet taken by the MACC.
“The repeated seizure of Ilham Tower is pure harassment as it is yet another example of the MACC operating by the law of the jungle.
“In short, they want to keep seizing our client’s property even though there’s no evidence of corruption,” they said.
The lawyers added that despite repeated allegations against Daim, no offence of corruption has been proven against Daim.
ALSO READ: MACC gets nod to freeze assets of Daim’s wife
Earlier, the Deputy Public Prosecutor's office gave the MACC the go-ahead to seize Ilham Tower – owned by Daim's family – for a second time.
MACC said it had since ordered the immediate seizure of the 60-storey skyscraper under Section 51(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (Amla).
ALSO READ: Daim’s Ilham Tower seized by MACC
Ilham Tower was first seized by MACC in December 2023 in its anti-money laundering probe involving a corporate transaction of RM2.3bil (US$500mil) in November 1997 involving public-listed Renong Bhd and United Engineers Malaysia Bhd (UEM), both linked to Umno.
On May 22, MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said that eight investigation papers had been opened into the assets owned by Daim, his family and proxies, which had not been declared to the MACC during its initial 2023 investigation.
On Wednesday (June 4), the High Court allowed an application by MACC to freeze assets worth £132mil in London allegedly linked to Na'imah and her family.
