KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — The High Court here today dismissed an application by the wife of former Tabung Haji (TH) chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and their four children for a stay of the government’s suit to forfeit almost RM16 million of their assets, a shop lot in Bandar Sunway.
Judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin made the decision after hearing the submission by lawyer Ashok Athimulan, representing Khadijah Mohd Noor and the four children — Mohamed Khairul Anwar, Mohamed Khairul Azman, Khaleeda Azwa and Khaleeda Azeera — and deputy public prosecutor Nik Haslinie Hashim, for the respondent.
The family is seeking for the forfeiture proceeding to be stayed pending the disposal of Abdul Azeez’s ongoing corruption trial at the Sessions Court, here.
Judge Muhammad Jamil, when handing down his decision, said there were no special circumstances for the court to allow the application to stay the forfeiture proceeding.
“A forfeiture proceeding and a criminal proceeding are two separate proceedings. In the Session Court, the criminal proceeding is against Abdul Azeez, while for the forfeiture proceeding, the seized property are under the name of the applicants.
“The applicants also did not file an affidavit in the forfeiture proceedings, so there is no issue of disclosure of defense which leads to injustice in the criminal proceeding against Abdul Azeez," he said, adding that the application also had no merit.
Earlier, Nik Haslinie submitted that the argument by the applicants that a third party would claim the seized property did not provide the special circumstances to stay the forfeiture proceeding.
“The court only wants to know if the property seized is from a legitimate source or not. At the current stage, all five of them (applicants) need to state how they acquire the properties,” she said, adding that the burden of proof in the forfeiture case does not lie on Abdul Azeez, but on the nominees named in the application, who also failed to prove the special circumstances for astay of the proceeding.
The court then set March 26 for a third party to appear in court to stake claim on the property if any, after the prosecution applied for the third party notice to be gazetted.
Based on the cause list on the e-filing website, the government had initiated the proceeding to forfeit the money from the TH personal accounts of Abdul Azeez’s wife, Khadijah Mohd Noor and their four children, Mohamed Khairul Anwar, Mohamed Khairul Azman, Khaleeda Azwav and Khaleeda Azeera, and the account of a company belonging to them, Azeera Management Consultants (M) Sdn Bhd.
The prosecution’s forfeiture suit against Abdul Azeez’s family was filed in September last year, while the family filed the stay bid in January this year. — Bernama
