PUTRAJAYA (July 7): The Federal Court on Thursday (July 7) dismissed a judicial review application made by Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamed and 30 others who wanted to challenge the compound issued on them three years ago under the anti-money laundering law for accepting money related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
Among the 30 were former Johor Baru Member of Parliament (MP) Tan Sri Shahrir Samad, Umno supreme council member and former Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed and Umno central organising secretary Datuk Mohd Sumali Reduan as well as other politicians who were among 80 named by former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Latheefa Koya in receiving 1MDB funds from former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
They represented the Umno divisions or Umno or Barisan Nasional liaison committee in receiving the funds.
Federal Court Judge Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim who sat alone on the apex bench dismissed the motion by Saarani and the others for leave to have the merits of their appeal heard.
“There is no novel issue raised before the Federal Court to decide for the first time in the appeal and hence it does not meet the threshold under Section 96(a) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
“Hence, the appeal by Saarani and 30 others is dismissed,” she added.
The bench did not award any costs as senior federal counsel (SFC) Ahmad Hanir Hambaly for the MACC and its chief commissioner was not seeking costs.
Earlier, Saarani and Umno representative counsel Mohamed Shahrul Fazli Kamarulzaman wanted to pose eight questions of law and submitted that the notice of compound should have been sanctioned by the public prosecutor or Attorney General, which in this case it was not and hence it was defective.
Shahrul Fazli said the notice of compound was issued under Section 92(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 in October 2019, and they had to challenge it as the amount the authorities wanted to compound was more than what they had received.
In using the case of one of the Puteri Umno recipients who received RM7 million, the compound amount payable was RM17.5 million, which was truly unreasonable, he added.
Shahrul Fazli also said that his clients also fear prosecution as Section 91(3) and (4) stipulate that if the offer to pay the compound is not accepted, they could be liable for prosecution.
SFC Ahmad Hanir in his reply to Shahrul Fazli told the court that what they are seeking are academic as the offer to accept the compound had lapsed as they were given 14 days from the notice given on Oct 7, 2019 to accept or reject it.
Furthermore, he added that on Oct 21, 2019, Shahrul Fazli's law firm had written in to inform that their clients are not accepting the compound offer.
In addition, Ahmad Hanir said the appellants cannot review any decision that had not been made on whether they would be prosecuted or not, as no decision had been made yet on this.
“So far, no charge has been imposed on all of them,” he said, adding that the application for the merits of the appeal to be heard and the questions posed are academic in nature and hence the court should not grant leave.
On Oct 7, 2019, then MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya announced that the MACC was taking action against 80 individuals and entities said to have received money from 1MDB, through Najib, and it was hoping to recover some RM420 million from the action.
The High Court dismissed their challenge of the notice on Feb 26, 2020 when the court refused to grant leave, and their appeal was also dismissed by the Court of Appeal, resulting in the matter on Thursday.