KUALA LUMPUR – The high court here has set October 30 for the decision on Bersatu’s second judicial review leave application to challenge the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) seizure of its two bank accounts.
Judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid fixed the date after hearing submissions by Bersatu’s counsel Rosli Dahlan and senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan who acted for the MACC.
“The decision is on October 30 at 9am via online proceedings,” said the judge.
Earlier, Rosli submitted that to date, Bersatu has not been served with the wrongful seizure orders. Thus, it wanted to know why the action (seizure) was taken against them.
“It has been four months since MACC’s public announcement of such a seizure. In Bersatu’s issue, all monies went into the party’s accounts and not into any individual accounts,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shamsul countered that the issuance of the seizure order is not amenable to judicial review, and the complaint relating to Bersatu’s bank accounts which were frozen and subsequently seized is within the jurisdiction of the criminal court.
“Bersatu’s bank accounts which were subjected to seizure by MACC are the subject matter of the criminal charges against the party’s president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin,” he argued.
On May 29, Datuk Muhammad Suhaimi Yahya, as a public officer of Bersatu filed the said application for leave to initiate a judicial review to challenge the MACC action to seize its bank accounts for investigation.
He named the then attorney-general Tan Sri Idrus Harun and MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki as the first and second respondents respectively and 20 other individuals as the third to 22nd respondents.
Bersatu claimed that on April 19, its CIMB and AmBank bank accounts were seized without any seizure order given to it under Section 50(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (AMLATFPUAA) 2001.
Bersatu claimed that MACC released a statement on April 20 that both accounts were seized on April 11 but never informed them on the said date. – September 7, 2023