KUALA LUMPUR (June 25): An associate of former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, Josephine Premla Sivaretnam, whose judicial review was dismissed by the Penang High Court on Tuesday, is seeking to appeal the decision.

This was confirmed by Josephine’s lead counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad when contacted by The Edge.

“Yes, we are [going to appeal],” Amer answered when asked if they intend to appeal judge Anand Ponnudurai’s decision.

Josephine's lawyers will have 30 days from Wednesday to file a notice of appeal.

Amer appeared with Joshua Tay while senior federal counsel Teh Li Siew appeared for the Attorney General’s Chambers on behalf of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

In judicial review applications, leave (permission) has to be obtained from the court to have the merits of the application heard.

This is to ensure that the application is not frivolous and vexatious.

Earlier on Tuesday, Anand had refused to grant leave (permission) to Josephine to have her judicial review heard on its merits, as the court ruled that ongoing investigations by the MACC or other investigative authorities are non-justiciable.

Anand said if notices had been issued by the anti-graft body, then she was obliged to comply with them even if they dated back to 1997.

“It is up to the respondents (MACC and its chief commissioner) to consider their next course of action if there has been insufficient information provided,” the judge said as quoted by portal Free Malaysia Today.

Josephine, a lawyer, filed the judicial review last month to challenge the three notices issued by the MACC against her to furnish details on Daim, who is being investigated under Section 23 of the MACC Act for purported abuse of power.

The notices were issued to her under Section 36 of the MACC Act.

It was previously reported that the Kuala Lumpur High Court had in March dismissed Daim, his wife Toh Puan Na’imah Abdul Khalid and his family’s judicial review bid that led to the freezing of their accounts and the seizure of Ilham Tower here.

Judge Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh then ruled that the applicants (Daim and his family members) had failed to establish that the investigation carried out by the MACC was mala fide or done in bad faith as claimed.

“In short, the threshold [for mala fide] is not crossed, since they (Daim and others) were not able to establish mala fide. The judicial review must fail,” the judge said, adding that Daim and his family need to prove or establish the existence of mala fide to challenge the criminal investigation.

“Mere suspicion of mala fide or even allegations of intimidation are insufficient. On the facts affirmed, the applicants (Daim and family) have failed to establish mala fide on the part of the investigating officers of the MACC,” the judge had said. 

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