KUALA LUMPUR: The prosecution in the High Court emphasised that there is no guarantee that Toh Puan Na'imah Abdul Khalid, the wife of former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, would not abscond if her international passport is permanently returned to her.
"Therefore, we need the passport, and the surrender of the passport is not unjustly harsh," he submitted on Wednesday at the hearing of Na'imah's application to review the Sessions Court order to impound her passport after she was charged with failing to declare her assets to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission .
"The impounding of the applicant's passport without reasons was a breach of the applicant's constitutional right to travel abroad, being an aspect of an individual's right to liberty as enshrined under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution,” he said. "Based on Section 388 of the Criminal Procedure Code, it is evident that the authority to grant bail for non-bailable offences lies within the discretion of the judge hearing the case. In exercising this discretion, the presiding judge may impose additional conditions on the accused," he clarified.