Malaysia legislation
Section 2
Section 2
(a)
communications between an advocate and solicitor and his client or any person representing his client made in connection with the giving of legal advice to the client;
(b)
communications between an advocate and solicitor and his client or any person representing his client, or between such an advocate and solicitor or his client or any such representative and any other person, made in connection with, or in contemplation of, judicial proceedings and for the purposes of such proceedings; and
(c)
items enclosed with or referred to in such communications and made—
(i)
in connection with the giving of legal advice; or
(ii)
in connection with or in contemplation of judicial proceedings and for the purposes of such proceedings, when they are in the possession of a person who is entitled to possession of them, but excluding, in any case, any communications or thing held with the intention of furthering a criminal purpose;
“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made under this Act, and a power to prescribe includes the power to make different provisions in the regulations for different persons or classes of persons;
“property” means movable or immovable property of every description, whether situated in or outside Malaysia and whether tangible or intangible and includes an interest in any such movable or immovable property;
“proceeds of crime” means any property suspected, or found by a court, to be property directly or indirectly derived or realized as a result of the commission of an offence or to represent the value of
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property and other benefits derived from the commission of an offence;
“financial institution” means—
(a)
a licensed bank, licensed insurer and licensed investment bank under the Financial Services Act 2013 [Act 758];
(b)
a licensed international Islamic bank, licensed international takaful operator, licensed Islamic bank and licensed takaful operator under the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013
[Act 759];
(c)
a prescribed institution under the Development Financial
Institutions Act 2002 [Act 618];
(d)
a licensee under the Money Services Business Act 2011
[Act 731];
(e)
a person licensed or registered under the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 [Act 671];
(f)
a central depository under the Securities Industry (Central
Depositories) Act 1991 [Act 453];
(g)
a bank licensee, an insurance licensee, a securities licensee and any licensed entity under the Labuan Financial Services and Securities Act 2010 [Act 704]; and
(h)
an Islamic bank licensee, a takaful licensee, an Islamic securities licensee and any licensed entity under the Labuan
Islamic Financial Services and Securities Act 2010
[Act 705];
“serious offence” means—
(a)
an offence against the laws of Malaysia in respect of which the punishment provided by the law is imprisonment for a period of at least one year, or a more severe punishment; or
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(b)
any attempt, abetment or conspiracy to commit any of the offences referred to in paragraph (a);
“foreign serious offence” means an offence—
(a)
against the laws of a prescribed foreign State in respect of which the punishment provided by the law is imprisonment for a period of at least one year, or a more severe punishment; and
(b)
that consists of or includes activity which, if it had occurred in Malaysia, would have constituted a serious offence;
“Minister” means the Minister charged with the responsibility for legal affairs;
“foreign State” means any country or territory outside Malaysia;
“prescribed foreign State” means a foreign State declared by the
Minister, by an order made under subsection 17(1), as a prescribed foreign State or a foreign State in respect of which the Minister has issued a special direction under section 18, as the case may be;
“authorized officer” means—
(a)
any police officer;
(b)
any customs officer;
(c)
any immigration officer;
(d)
any officer of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission;
and
(e)
any officer authorized by the Attorney General;
“criminal investigation” means an investigation—
(a)
into a serious offence or a foreign serious offence, as the case may be; or
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(b)
for the purposes of an ancillary criminal matter;
“foreign law immunity certificate” means a certificate given, or a declaration made, by a prescribed foreign State or under the law of a prescribed foreign State, certifying or declaring that, under the law of that prescribed foreign State, persons generally or a specified person could or could not, either generally or in specified proceedings and either generally or in specified circumstances, be required—
(a)
to answer a specified question; or
(b)
to produce a specified thing;
“instrumentalities” means—
(a)
any thing which is used in, or in connection with, the commission of any serious offence or foreign serious offence; or
(b)
any property which is wholly or partly used in, or in connection with, the commission of any serious offence or foreign serious offence, whether the thing or property is situated within or outside Malaysia;
“order” includes a decree, direction or judgment, or any part of it, howsoever described;
“forfeiture order” means an order made in Malaysia for the forfeiture of property or instrumentalities in respect of a serious offence;
“foreign forfeiture order” means an order made by a court in a prescribed foreign State for the recovery, forfeiture or confiscation of—
(a)
payments or other rewards received in connection with an offence against the law of that prescribed foreign State that is a foreign serious offence, or the value of such payments or rewards;
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(b)
property derived or realized, directly or indirectly, from payments or other rewards received in connection with such an offence, or the value of such property; or
(c)
instrumentalities or the value of such instrumentalities;
“criminal matter” means, in respect of a serious offence or a foreign serious offence, as the case may be—
(a)
a criminal investigation;
(b)
criminal proceedings; or
(c)
an ancillary criminal matter;
“ancillary criminal matter” means—
(a)
the restraining of dealing with, or the seizure, forfeiture or confiscation of, property or instrumentalities in connection with a serious offence or a foreign serious offence, as the case may be; or
(b)
the obtaining, enforcement or satisfaction of a forfeiture order or a foreign forfeiture order, as the case may be;
“appropriate authority”, in relation to a foreign State, means a person or authority whom the Attorney General is satisfied is authorized under the law of that foreign State—
(a)
in the case of a request by that foreign State to Malaysia for assistance in a criminal matter, to make the request; or
(b)
in the case of a request by Malaysia to that foreign State for assistance in a criminal matter, to receive the request;
“premises” includes—
(a)
a structure (whether or not movable or offshore), building, tent, vehicle, vessel, hovercraft or aircraft;
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(b)
a place (whether or not enclosed or built upon); and
(c)
part of any premises (including premises of a kind referred to in paragraph (a) or (b));
“criminal proceedings” means a trial of a person for a serious offence or a foreign serious offence, as the case may be, and includes any proceeding to determine whether a particular person should be tried for the offence;
“process” includes any summons, warrant, order or other document in respect of a criminal matter that is issued, as the case may be—
(a)
by any court in Malaysia or by any Judge, Sessions Court
Judge or Magistrate or by the Registrar or a Deputy
Registrar or a Senior Assistant Registrar of a High Court or by a Registrar of a Subordinate Court; or
(b)
by any court of a foreign State or by any judge, magistrate or officer of such a court;
“dealing”, in relation to any property, includes—
(a)
receiving or acquiring the property;
(b)
concealing or disguising the property (whether by concealing or disguising its nature, source, location, disposition, movement or ownership or any rights with respect to it or otherwise);
(c)
disposing of or converting the property;
(d)
bringing the property into or removing the property from
Malaysia;
(e)
using the property to borrow money, or as security (whether by way of a charge, mortgage or pledge or otherwise); or
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(f)
where a debt is owed to the person holding the property, making a payment to any person in reduction of the amount of the debt.
(2)
For the purposes of this Act—
(a)
a reference to a foreign State includes a reference to—
(i)
a territory of that foreign State; and
(ii)
a ship or aircraft of, or registered in, that foreign
State; and
(b)
a reference to the law of a foreign State includes a reference to the law in force in any part of that foreign State.
(3)
For the purposes of this Act, judicial proceedings in a prescribed foreign State are—
(a)
instituted when any action is brought in court against a person in relation to a foreign serious offence;
(b)
concluded on the occurrence of any of the following events:
(i)
the discontinuance of the proceedings;
(ii)
the acquittal of the defendant;
(iii)
the quashing of the defendant’s conviction for the offence;
(iv)
the grant of a pardon in respect of the defendant’s conviction for the offence;
(v)
the court sentencing or otherwise dealing with the defendant in respect of his conviction for the offence without having made a foreign forfeiture order;
(vi)
the satisfaction of a foreign forfeiture order made in the proceedings, whether by payment of the amount
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due under the order, by the defendant serving imprisonment in default, by the recovery of all property or instrumentalities liable to be recovered or otherwise.
Object of Act