PUTRAJAYA (March 19): The High Court had not considered all the evidence when meting out a guilty verdict against Muar Member of Parliament (MP) Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman in his criminal trial for his involvement in misappropriating Bersatu young wing Armada funds, claims Syed Saddiq’s defence team at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

Prominent criminal counsel Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, appearing for the former Bersatu youth politician, added that the High Court had, among others, also failed to appreciate the defence's case, where Syed Saddiq had challenged and offered further explanations to rebut prosecution witnesses' testimony.

Hisyam said that there were instances where the trial judge merely "narrated" the defence's evidence but did not give adequate consideration or make findings on this evidence. One such example was the evidence of the defence's third witness, former information chief of Armada, Ulya Aqamah Husamudin.

The lawyer argued that Ulya had corroborated Syed Saddiq's evidence, that Syed Saddiq had never instructed either then-Armada assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali or its then-assistant secretary Ahmad Redzuan Mohamed Shafi to withdraw the specific amount of RM1 million from Armada’s official account. This amount is the centre of Syed Saddiq's first charge.

Both Ahmad Redzuan and Rafiq were prosecution witnesses who claimed that Syed Saddiq had private discussions with them to make the withdrawals from Armada’s accounts. Hisyam argued that the judge did not consider Ulya's evidence.

Hisyam also argued that Rafiq had been under "severe pressure" during the investigation and thus it could be inferred that Rafiq had tailored his evidence to appease the authorities.

"These are important questions but the [trial judge], with respect, did not allude to them," he argued.

The Court of Appeal (COA) is currently hearing the young MP's appeal against the High Court's decision in November 2023, where he was found guilty of all four charges — one charge of abetting Rafiq in committing criminal breach of trust (CBT), one charge of misappropriation of party funds of RM120,000 and two money-laundering charges.

Judge Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid had sentenced the former youth and sports minister to a total of seven years in prison, two strokes of the rotan and a fine of RM10 million.

Syed Saddiq's other counsel, former solicitor general II Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, argued that the abetment of CBT and misappropriation charges lacked the ingredients of an actual offence.

He argued that there were five elements in the charges relating to CBT and all revolved around actual usage of the funds.

The funds, Yusof said, were used for party purposes and not for his client's individual benefit. The defence has maintained that the RM1 million in this case was withdrawn in March 2020 and used for preparations to face the Covid-19 outbreak and also for Ramadan and Hari Raya, which were around the corner.

"Not a single cent of the RM1 million went into [Syed Saddiq's] account," Yusof said, adding that the usage of the funds for the abovementioned purpose was also lawful.

He added further that mere withdrawal of these funds fell short in fulfilling elements for CBT as required by the law.

As for the misappropriation charge, Yusof argued that the basic ingredient is that the funds belonged to the party. However, in this case, he argued that it was Syed Saddiq's monies which were “safekept” in an account linked to the party.

This is related to the charge of the misuse of RM120,000 of party contributions belonging to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise (ABBE) in April 2018. ABBE is a company set up to generate income for Armada through merchandise sales. The sum was transferred to Syed Saddiq's personal Maybank account.

The Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) co-founder has maintained that these monies were from two fundraising events and were to replace his own monies spent on his campaign in Muar during the 14th general election (GE14) in 2018.

The politician, who turns 33 this year, was also charged with two money laundering charges involving two transactions of RM50,000 each — believed to be proceeds of unlawful activities — via his Maybank Islamic account and his Amanah Saham Bumiputera account in June 2018.

The prosecution, led by deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, is slated to make its case on Thursday.

The three-member panel, led by COA judge Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and accompanied by COA judges Datuk Azman Abdullah and Datuk Noorin Badaruddin, is presiding over the appeal.

Also read :
Syed Saddiq found guilty of all four charges in criminal trial involving misappropriation of Bersatu funds
Syed Saddiq sentenced to seven years in prison, two strokes of the rotan, RM10m fine in criminal case of misappropriating Bersatu funds
High Court: Sentence in Syed Saddiq's criminal case, which includes two strokes of the cane, not excessive