28-1-2024 (KUALA LUMPUR) Tun Daim Zainuddin, who is expected to be charged with two offences on Monday, has expressed his readiness to have his day in court.
In a statement, the 84-year-old former finance minister confirmed that his lawyers had been informed about the impending charges.
“So be it. I look forward to my day in court,” he stated.
Daim revealed that graft investigators had recorded his statement on Friday and subsequently informed his lawyers about the charges he would be facing.
“The charges are related to an offence under Section 36(2) of the MACC Act concerning the disclosure of assets,” he explained.
MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki confirmed that Daim would be brought to court to face two charges for failure to declare assets.
“We have received consent from the Attorney-General’s Chambers to proceed with the charges,” Azam said when contacted.
Earlier, on January 24, the MACC announced that they had been given the green light to charge Daim but were unable to execute it at the time as he was hospitalized.
Daim had been admitted to the hospital for about two weeks and was discharged on Thursday.
Azam stated that the MACC had intended to bring Daim’s case to court last week after obtaining consent from the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
While the agency claimed that Daim’s lawyers were informed of their intentions, his wife, Toh Puan Na’imah Abdul Khalid, argued that neither she nor their family’s legal counsel were notified about the impending charges.
Na’imah herself had already been taken to court by the MACC and charged with failure to declare assets.
In December, the MACC seized the 60-storey Menara Ilham, which is owned by Daim’s family. The anti-graft agency acted after finding an offence under the MACC Act based on information provided to them.
Following the seizure of the tower, Daim criticized the MACC’s investigations into him and his family, alleging that it was nothing more than a political witch-hunt driven by the Prime Minister’s personal animosity.
The MACC clarified that their investigation into the former finance minister was conducted in accordance with existing laws and based on information from the Pandora Papers, which led to the opening of an investigation paper in February 2023.
