KUALA LUMPUR (July 20): An investigating officer with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Wednesday (July 20) testified that five investigation papers were opened on former Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, based on complaints and information received by the commission.
Mohd Syahmeizy Sulong, the officer investigating the criminal breach of trust (CBT) charge that Syed Saddiq faces in the criminal trial, told the court that this was part of the reason that there was a delay in charging the Muar Member of Parliament (MP) in court.
"That is why the charge took a long time because I needed to synchronise the witness statements with all the other investigation papers. And there are still [some] investigations that are ongoing," he said in response to a question from deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin on why there was a delay in taking Syed Saddiq to court.
Wan Shaharuddin said he was asking the question for "everyone's benefit", as there were allegations that the charges against the former Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief were all a political conspiracy, and that the delay in prosecution compounded the suspicion.
The consent to prosecute, which is needed to charge someone in court, was issued by Wan Shaharuddin on Jan 4 last year. Syed Saddiq, however, was only charged over half a year later on July 22.
Mohd Syahmeizy said he was only in charge of investigating the CBT charge against Syed Saddiq, who was accused of abetting Youth wing Angkatan Bersatu Anak Muda’s (Armada) former assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali in committing CBT involving RM1 million of funds belonging to Bersatu Youth.
Syed Saddiq 'had no time to go to the bank'
Mohd Syahmeizy also said Syed Saddiq never once said that the charges brought against him were a "political conspiracy" when the MACC was taking his statement during the course of its investigation into the matter, which started on June 7, 2020.
The defence, however, had indicated many times throughout the course of the trial that the charges were politically motivated.
Meanwhile, Mohd Syahmeizy confirmed Rafiq's testimony earlier this month that Rafiz had distributed RM900,000 out of the RM1 million party funds — with RM650,000 to Federal Territories Bersatu Youth information chief Muhammad Daniel Kusari and RM250,000 to Bersatu Youth member Muhammad Naqib Ab Rahim — while the balance RM100,000 was used to fund Armada programmes.
According to Mohd Syahmeizy, MACC had conducted raids in June 2020 and subsequently seized RM425,537 from Muhammad Daniel. At the time, the rest of the funds had been distributed to Armada division leaders and members.
MACC also seized RM175,000 from Muhammad Naqib, as the rest of the funds had been returned to Rafiq.
The Armada account from which the RM1 million was withdrawn had three designated trustees — Syed Saddiq, Rafiq and Bersatu Youth assistant secretary Ahmad Redzuan Mohamed Shafi.
Rafiq and Ahmad Redzuan withdrew the money on March 6.
When DPP Muhammad Asyraf Mohamed Tahir asked Mohd Syahmeizy why Syed Saddiq did not withdraw the money himself, the MACC officer said, based on his investigation, that Syed Saddiq had no time to go to the bank and frequently changed his signature on bank cheques.
Defence: 'Is MACC trying to protect Bersatu President?'
During cross examination by lead defence counsel Gobind Singh Deo, Mohd Syahmeizy denied that the MACC was practising "double standards" by not investigating Bersatu President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin over party fund withdrawals he conducted without the party Supreme Council's approval, while his client was on trial for the very same reason.
Part of the allegations levelled against Syed Saddiq was that the RM1 million was withdrawn without party approval and that the subsequent expenditure was not tabled to the party leadership.
In response to Gobind's claim, Mohd Syahmeizy only repeated that the purview of his investigation involved Syed Saddiq and the withdrawal of the RM1 million.
Gobind then highlighted how another MACC officer named Ehsan, who was involved in investigating the case and told Syed Saddiq that he was a "victim of politics". To this, Mohd Syahmeizy said he had no knowledge of the exchange.
During proceedings earlier, Gobind referred to a Facebook live video that Syed Saddiq posted on July 22, 2020 to another prosecution witness — MACC forensic officer Nor Fadhillah Mohd Salleh — and asked why she had not lodged a police report against Bersatu president for alleged wrongdoing.
During his cross examination of Nor Fadhillah, Gobind said the video indicated that neither Bersatu's president or other leaders in the party's leadership had tabled fund withdrawals to the party's Supreme Council since the party's inception in 2016, up until Syed Saddiq's termination from the party.
Nor Fadillah, however, said her duty was merely to extract a small portion of the video from Syed Saddiq's Facebook page and analyse its contents, and that she did not hear Muhyiddin's name in the video.
If found guilty of the CBT charge, which is framed under Section 406 of the Penal Code, Syed Saddiq could be jailed for up to 10 years, whipped and fined.
Syed Saddiq has also been charged under Section 403 with misusing RM120,000 in party contributions raised through a Maybank Islamic Bhd account belonging to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise between April 8 and 21, 2018. If convicted for this, he could be jailed up to five years, whipped and fined.
In addition, he faces two charges of engaging in money laundering activities involving two transactions of RM50,000 each — money that is believed to be proceeds of unlawful activities — via his Maybank Islamic account and his Amanah Saham Bumiputera account, on June 16 and 19, 2018.
The latter two charges were framed under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, which are punishable under Section 4(1) of the same act with a maximum jail term of 15 years, and a fine of not less than five times the amount involved.
The trial before Judicial Commissioner Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid continues on Thursday.