A new motion will be tabled in the Swiss Parliament seeking the restitution of funds that have been linked to 1MDB. However, the Malaysian firm has denied the CHF104 million (RM430 million) belongs to it.
Yesterday, Geneva lawmaker Carlo Sommaruga’s motion seeking the restitution of illicitly-generated funds to their country of origin was defeated in the Swiss Parliament after it was criticised for being too broad.
Sommaruga's party - the Social Democratic Party (SP) - has already begun drafting a new motion on the matter to be tabled again in the Swiss Parliament.
“Yes, he (Sommaruga) will file another motion. We have started to draft it,” SP international secretary Peter Hug told Malaysiakini in an email.
However, Hug added, the drafting process is expected to take time and no date has been set for the filing of the motion.
NGOs can play a part
During the debate yesterday, the Swiss Foreign Ministry argued that the repatriation of illicit funds could only be done by the judiciary in accordance with the Swiss Foreign Illicit Assets Act (FIAA).
Meanwhile, Hug explained that Malaysian NGOs had a part to play in facilitating this legal process.
“It is important that NGOs in Malaysia are establishing the institutional preconditions which allow for restitution of the confiscated assets…(by) providing reasonable assurance that they will not feed new corruption and guarantee they can implement programmes which conform to (Swiss law),” he said.
He cited Article 17 of the FIAA, which stipulates that the restitution of assets shall be made either to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of the country of origin or to strengthen that country's rule of law and thus to contribute to the fight against impunity.
Article 18 of the same Act rules that in the absence of an agreement with the country of origin, the restitution of assets will be made through national or international organisations, including NGOs.
Hug previously vowed that “never” would the money in question be repatriated to the Malaysian government.
Back in November last year, Swiss financial authorities seized RM430 million from three banks – BSI Bank, Coutts & Co and Falcon Bank – after they were implicated in the alleged laundering of 1MDB-linked monies.
The banks are appealing the seizures in the Federal Administration Court.
Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said previously that the funds have since flowed into the Swiss Federal Treasury because there were no claimants.
Finance Minister II Johari Abdul Ghani has said that he was unaware if Putrajaya had any intention of claiming the money. -Mkini
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