The confiscation of terrorist funds and the impediments under the anti-terrorism financing legal frameworks in Malaysia and England and Wales / Hayyum Suleikha Selamat

The peril of terrorism financing is imminent around the world, threatening global security in our jurisdictions. Hence, the international bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force have developed the two central components of the Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) regime: criminalisation, financing, and confiscation of terrorist funds. However, the two components have not been adequately addressed by the current laws under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 and the Penal Code. Previous research has not addressed the importance of the confiscation of the terrorist fund and the adequacy of the laws and its modalities. Given the deficiency of the laws and modalities, two central components of the thesis have been developed. Firstly, the deficiency under the confiscation of terrorist fund legal regime and modalities has led to various obstacles in Anti-Terrorism Financing approaches to disrupt, dismantle and sanction the terrorist act. Secondly, such weakness in the confiscation of terrorist fund regime is due to the various issues and impediments, including legal, operational and technical concerns in confiscating property in terrorism or terrorism financing matters. Guided by this thesis, this study aims at examining the confiscation of terrorist fund and impediments faced by the law enforcement agencies in their effort to counter-terrorism financing and confiscation of the terrorist fund in Malaysia and the England and Wales, with a view in producing lessons to be learned. Further, this research seeks to propose strengthening the existing law and guideline in assisting law enforcement agencies. Finally, at the theoretical level, this research criticised how the Intelligence-led Policing theory and the Situational Crime Prevention theory could benefit the law enforcement agencies in their Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) action. The research employs a qualitative methodology in which the primary data from various stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, policymaker, bankers, witness, religious authority, SUHAKAM and the Financial Intelligent and Enforcement Department will be collected using semi-structured interviews. A total of 25 respondents will be involved. Such data is triangulated with the policymakers and the Bank Negara. The secondary data is obtained from the library-based approach and doctrinal legal research. The evidence of this research is reported in Chapter Five. The legal analysis of the confiscation of the terrorist fund in both jurisdictions is presented in Chapters Three and Four, respectively. This research reveals that Malaysia's ATF legal frameworks do not give greater priority to the use of the terrorism financing offence to disrupt, dismantle and sanction terrorist acts and terrorist organisations rather than terrorism offence per se. The research also found that the impediments in the confiscation of the terrorist fund need to be addressed to enhance the robust counter-terrorism financing regime. Future research on such crime can involve a quantitative study or the analysis of asset tracing in a foreign country for foreign fighter and comparative legal analysis between Malaysia and other jurisdictions such as the United States and Australia. This study hopes to contribute in setting forward the recommendations to improve the ATF legal framework in empowering the law enforcement agencies apart from contributing to the literature and enhance the legal knowledge of the confiscation of the terrorist fund.