Na'imah to challenge Ilham Tower seizure in court, her lawyers say, accusing MACC of harassment

• Lawyers Rajesh Nagarajan and Sachpreetraj Singh Sohanpal slammed the MACC's action as “pure harassment”.

KUALA LUMPUR (June 5): Toh Puan Na'imah Khalid (pictured), widow of the late former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, will immediately challenge the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) second seizure of Ilham Tower in court, said her lawyers.

In a statement on Thursday, lawyers Rajesh Nagarajan and Sachpreetraj Singh Sohanpal slammed the MACC's action as “pure harassment”.

“This is vindictive, unlawful, and a blatant abuse of power by the MACC," they claimed. "This is contrary to the rule of law; it is the law of the jungle.”

The lawyers also questioned whether the anti-graft agency was “playing musical chairs with the law”, noting that no corruption charges have been brought against Daim despite allegations and insinuations by both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki.

“Now, having failed to bring any charges against him, they are harassing our client with a second seizure. In short, they want to keep seizing our client’s property even though there’s no evidence of corruption,” claimed Rajesh and Sachpreetraj.

Earlier on Thursday, the MACC announced that it had again seized Ilham Tower, a property located in Jalan Binjai, Kuala Lumpur owned by Daim's family.

This second seizure was made under Section 51(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, which allows authorities to seize property suspected to be linked to unlawful activity.

This came after MACC chief Azam said in May that the commission was looking into the forfeiture of undeclared assets linked to Daim, estimated to be worth over RM2 billion.

Ilham Tower's first seizure was in December 2023, when the MACC invoked Section 38(1) of the MACC Act 2009, which allows property related to corruption to be frozen for up to 18 months pending possible forfeiture.

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