In November last year, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission froze 41 bank accounts belonging to Aman Palestin and several other companies involving more than RM15 million as part of an investigation into the non-governmental organisation’s alleged misappropriation of RM70 million.

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 6): The Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) will be objecting to Aman Palestin's leave application to commence legal action against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over the non-governmental organisation (NGO)’s frozen bank accounts.

Senior federal counsel Nur Irmawatie Daud confirmed this to the media following a brief mention of the matter before High Court judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh Serjit Singh on Tuesday.

"Yes, [AGC] will file an objection. We just received the cause papers yesterday," she said in her message to the press.

Aman Palestin's counsel Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali also confirmed the matter when speaking to the press on Tuesday.

He stressed that there was a need for the matter to be heard urgently as there was a pressing need to send aid to Palestinians impacted by the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

He said the authorities are free to conduct their investigations. However, he asked them to release the funds as there are organisations in Turkey, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon on standby to receive the said funds.

He also said the non-profit organisation which channels humanitarian aid to Palestine had written two letters to the graft busters regarding the funds — once in November and again in January — but did not receive a reply. Hence, Aman Palestin was left with little choice but to pursue the matter in court.

The High Court has set Feb 27 to hear Aman Palestin's leave application.

In its leave application filed on Jan 31, Aman Palestin is seeking a court order to unfreeze all 11 of its accounts and for the freeze order issued in November last year under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (AMLA) to be cancelled.

The non-profit organisation is also seeking an immediate release of RM11,026,215.60 (approximately RM11 million) for daily expenses, employee salaries, administration and operations cost, as well as its humanitarian work for the next three months.

The NGO is also seeking a declaration that it can continue to collect donations from the public and directly channel them to Palestinians, along with damages, costs and other relief deemed fit by the court.

Besides the anti-graft agency, among the seven respondents named in the suit were MACC chief Tan Sri Azam Baki, its senior director of investigation Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hashim, its anti-money laundering division director Datuk Zamri Zainul Abidin, and the government.

In November last year, the MACC froze 41 bank accounts belonging to Aman Palestin and several other companies involving more than RM15 million as part of an investigation into the NGO’s alleged misappropriation of RM70 million.

Azam said that freezing of the assets was done to facilitate investigations in accordance with Section 44(1) of AMLA, which allows an enforcement agency to issue an order to freeze any property of any person, or any terrorist property.