Court of Appeal allows Rosli Dahlan's challenge to ASNB account seizure

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Rosli's challenge to the ASNB seizure

Highlights

On 14 August 2024, the Court of Appeal allowed Rosli Dahlan's challenge to the seizure of his ASNB accounts and overturned the High Court's decision.
The Court of Appeal's decision allows the judicial review to proceed over the actions of the police and public prosecutors in relation to the investigation and the asset seizure order under Section 50 of AMLA.
Rosli claims that the seizure of his four ASNB accounts on 18 Jan 2024, linked to RM48.4 million in top-up transactions involving i-Serve Sdn Bhd, was driven by bad faith and an abuse of power.

This article was translated from the original. Read the original version by our correspondent here.

Appeal decision and next steps

As reported by The Edge Malaysia, the Court of Appeal unanimously set aside the High Court's decision of 14 August 2024 and granted Rosli leave to challenge the actions of the police and the Public Prosecutor concerning the asset seizure order under Section 50 of AMLA.

The panel, led by Datuk Dr Choo Kah Sing and comprising Datuk Nadzarin Wok Nordin and Datuk Seri Latifah Mohd Tahar, said Rosli had established a prima facie arguable case, including his claim that the procedural order may have been tainted by bad faith, improper purpose, irrationality or abuse of power. The court also ruled that the High Court judge had examined the matter at a level more appropriate for a substantive hearing than for the leave application stage.

The Court of Appeal then remitted the case to the High Court for a full hearing before a different judge or judicial commissioner. Case management was set for 9 Nov, and the court also awarded costs to Rosli.

Choo said the court's role at the leave stage is limited to determining whether an application is frivolous or vexatious and whether there is a prima facie arguable case, rather than resolving factual disputes or making a final assessment of the evidence.

Implications for the judicial review and AMLA investigation

The seizure order against the ASNB accounts was issued on 12 Jan 2024 and set aside on 17 Oct of the same year. All of Rosli's accounts have been unfrozen, but this appeal decision allows the judicial review to proceed over how prosecutorial and investigative powers were exercised when the order was made.

In the earlier High Court decision, Tun Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh rejected Rosli's leave application on 14 August 2024, reasoning that the deputy public prosecutor had not acted in bad faith merely by relying on information from an investigating officer. The court also considered judicial intervention premature while the police investigation was ongoing.

Rosli argued that the seizure order was tainted by bad faith, abuse of power, improper purpose and reliance on false information from investigators. He claimed that the police action was linked to AirAsia Bhd's report against i-Serve Sdn Bhd concerning RM48.4 million in top-up transactions, and that the inspection and seizure of his four ASNB accounts on 18 Jan 2024 were not carried out for a legitimate investigative purpose, but rather to persecute and humiliate him.

In a separate, earlier judicial review, Rosli also succeeded in obtaining leave to challenge the freezing of his and his wife's bank accounts, as well as the travel ban, after the court found that the police had acted in bad faith.

In our earlier coverage of Mycron Steel Bhd withdrawing its judicial review over the abolition of duties on anti-dumping duties, we reported that the company had dropped its legal challenge following discussions it described as constructive, and stressed that the move was not prompted by any court decision. The article also outlined the timeline of the government's decision to abolish duties on certain steel coil products from South Korea and Vietnam, and discussed the commercial implications for price competition in the domestic steel sector.

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