KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 — Former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin’s wife, Toh Puan Nai’mah Abdul Khalid, today said her husband is prepared to face any charges against from the confines of his hospital room.
Nai’mah then criticised Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki for suggesting that her husband was using the hospitalisation to delay his prosecution.
She added that her family and their lawyers had not been informed that there were charges pending against Daim.
“We were only told that a statement was to be recorded from him. Only today, reading the news reports, have I discovered that Daim is to be charged.
“Hence, the insinuations made by Azam Baki that Daim is somehow evading being charged by getting hospitalised is false and mischievous. Particularly offensive are his disparaging remarks against the dedicated and professional doctors of this hospital,” she said in a statement.
Nai’mah then said her husband is prepared to face any charge, made anywhere, and will vigorously defend himself in accordance with the law.
“He has been warded and is undergoing treatment. Subject to the permission of the hospital and medical team, Daim is prepared to face this political charge in the hospital itself.
“We will leave this to Azam and the MACC to decide,” she added.
Earlier today, Azam Baki said that Daim would have been charged last week except that the latter was hospitalised.
Azam told the Malaysiakini news portal that the Attorney General’s Chambers already gave its approval “over a week ago” to proceed with charges against Daim under the MACC Act.
“When the investigating officer notified his lawyer that Daim needed to be present in court, the counsel informed MACC that Daim had been admitted to a private hospital,” he was quoted as saying.
“We have checked it, and Daim was indeed hospitalised before we received the green light to press charges. However, until today, we could not ascertain why was he hospitalised as the doctor treating him did not reveal what was going on with Daim and instead went back and forth about his situation.”
Azam said Daim will face at least one charge of failing to declare several properties belonging to him and his wife.
The MACC chief said the commission could have requested for a judge to attend the hospital where Daim had been admitted in order to charge the former minister there.
However, he said this would only be done as a last resort or if circumstances required such measures.
