KUALA LUMPUR: The wife of former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin was charged Tuesday with failing to disclose her assets to anti-graft investigators.

Na’imah Abdul Khalid, Daim’s 66-year-old wife, pleaded not guilty at the court.

The offence of not disclosing her assets in response to a request by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was allegedly committed last November, according to court documents.

Daim, 85, is a close ally of former two-time prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who came to power in 2022 vowing to stamp out high-level corruption.

“No crime was committed by me and I will prove this in court,” Na’imah said in a statement outside the court.

“The real crime is the plot to tarnish my husband’s reputation. The real crime is the wielding of state power for personal ends and not for the benefit of the people.”

In a message directed to Anwar, she said, “Power is brief and there is always a reckoning for those who abuse it.”

The court fixed March 22 for the next hearing in the case, where a trial date could be set. If found guilty, she faces a maximum prison term of five years and a hefty fine.

The MACC has said it is investigating Daim, who has called the probe into his affairs a “political witch-hunt”. Mahathir has also claimed that the investigation is politically motivated.

Last week, the MACC summoned Mahathir’s son Mirzan Mahathir for questioning over his business activities, following revelations contained in the Panama Papers, “as well as his business activities involving the sale and purchase of government-linked companies”.

In August 2022, the MACC said it had started probing “entities linked and named” in the Pandora and Panama papers which shone a light on tax evasion by the rich and powerful around the world.