KUALA LUMPUR – 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 in assets comprising a shop lot in Bandar Sunway.
Judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin made the decision after hearing submissions 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 proceedings to be stayed pending the disposal of Azeez’s ongoing corruption trial at the Sessions Court.
Jamil, in handing down his decision, said there are no special circumstances in which the court can allow the application to stay the forfeiture proceedings.
“Forfeiture and criminal proceedings are two separate proceedings. In the Sessions Court, the criminal proceedings are against Azeez, while for the forfeiture proceedings, the seized property is 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 defence, which leads to injustice in the criminal proceedings against Azeez," he said, adding the application also had no merit.
Earlier, 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 proceedings.
“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 acquired the properties,” she said, adding that the burden of proof in the forfeiture case does not lie on Azeez, but on the nominees named in the application, who also failed to prove the special circumstances for a stay of the proceedings.
The court then set March 26 for a third party, if any, to appear in court to stake their claim on the property, 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 proceedings to forfeit the money from the personal TH accounts of Azeez’s wife and their four children, and the account of a company belonging to them, Azeera Management Consultants Sdn Bhd.
The prosecution’s forfeiture suit against Azeez’s family was filed in September last year, while the family filed the stay bid in January this year. – Bernama, December 18, 2020
