KUALA LUMPUR – Toh Puan Na’imah Abdul Khalid, the wife of former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, has yet to retrieve her passport as the high court here will only make its decision on March 22.
During the oral submissions today, judge Datuk Ahmad Bache heard from the prosecution that Na’imah can always apply for the temporary return of her passport, similar to what former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has been doing.
Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said impounding her passport is not harsh seeing there is no guarantee she would not flee the country.
He added that Daim, who is not in good health, was not ordered to surrender his passport despite facing a similar court case as his wife.
Na’imah had to surrender her passport to the court as part of her bail conditions pending the disposal of her asset declaration case brought by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) recently.
However, defence counsel M. Puravalen again contended that the prosecution did not provide any supporting material to the court to justify the impound order.
He also said Na’imah’s fundamental rights were violated when she had to surrender her passport seeing that the sessions court previously did not have sufficient information.
The impoundment order on her travel document was set by sessions court judge Azura Alwi after Na’imah, 67, claimed trial to a charge of failing to declare her assets to the MACC on January 23.
Na’imah was charged under Section 36(2) of the MACC Act 2009 for allegedly giving a sworn written statement on December 1, 2023 that did not comply with the notice terms served to her under Section 36(1)(b) of the same legislation.
The notice was issued on November 8 last year and served to her on November 14.
If found guilty of the offence, she faces a maximum five-year jail term and would be liable to a maximum RM100,000 fine. – March 13, 2024