PUTRAJAYA (June 25): The Court of Appeal has overturned Muar Member of Parliament Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman's sentence and criminal conviction in a case related to misuse of political party funds.

In a unanimous decision, a three-member panel led by Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim found that the High Court had erred in its findings and that the prosecution had failed to prove ingredients of the charges in the case.

The panel was also of the view that Syed Saddiq's defence was not a mere bare denial but rather had challenged the evidence put forth by the prosecution.

Reading the broad grounds for slightly more than an hour on Wednesday, judge Datuk Noorin Badaruddin said: "We unanimously find that the charges against [Syed Saddiq] are unsafe. The appeal is allowed and the conviction and sentence [are] set aside. He is acquitted."

Judge Datuk Azman Abdullah was also part of the panel.

Syed Saddiq was appealing against High Court's 2023 decision where he was found guilty of four charges consisting of abetting criminal breach of trust (CBT), misappropriation of party funds and money-laundering charges.

The funds in question belonged to Armada, Bersatu's youth wing which the 32-year-old led before leaving the party in May 2020.

The former youth and sports minister was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison, two strokes of the rotan, and a fine of RM10 million.

It is important to note that the young politician was found guilty of two main charges that are separate and not connected to each other.

For the first charge, Syed Saddiq was found guilty of abetting former Armada assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali in committing CBT by withdrawing RM1 million of party funds in March 2020.

In gist, the COA found that the prosecution had failed to prove the ingredients of the prima facie case.

Firstly, the judges said that the withdrawal of the RM1 million was not wrong according to the party's constitution.

"We say that the principal offence is groundless. The RM1 million was never misappropriated, but used for Armada's purposes. All the monies were spent for [the party's purpose], and nowhere is it shown that Syed Saddiq received a single sen," judge Noorin said.

She added that the prosecution had failed to prove malicious intent in withdrawing the money, which the prosecution claimed fulfils the ingredients of the charge.

For the second charge, Syed Saddiq was found guilty of misusing 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 other two money-laundering charges were linked to this second charge.

Namely, he was found guilty of 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 total of RM100,000 stemmed from the 'reimbursement'.

Syed Saddiq has maintained that these monies were from two fundraising events and were meant as payback to replace his own monies spent on his campaign in Muar during the 14th general election in 2018.

Noorin said there was “not an iota of evidence” to show that the fund belonged to ABBE. She added that the monies were Syed Saddiq’s, held merely in trust in ABBE's account.

"The RM120,000 was held in trust for Syed Saddiq. The monies, which were contributed by donors, were held in transit [in ABBE's account]," she said.

She added that the charges could have been avoided if the sum had been deposited to Syed Saddiq's personal account to begin with.

The panel also said that the prosecution's star witness, Rafiq Hakim, himself had provided contradictory evidence according to the notes of the proceedings, but High Court judge Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid had not given due consideration to this.

She also added that the High Court judge had a "serious lapse in decision-making" as it was not enough to merely say he had given consideration but ought to have detailed how he arrived at his decision.

It has to be noted that Azhar's full grounds were 22 pages long and was released about a year after his initial decision in 2023.

The prosecution has said that they will discuss the matter before deciding on whether to appeal against Wednesday's decision.

Before proceedings ended on Wednesday, panel chair judge Ahmad Zaidi referred back to senior deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin's comments during the last day of submissions in April.  

As reported previously, Wan Shaharuddin had asked the panel to put aside opinions and comments of netizens regarding this case.

This immediately prompted fellow COA panel member Azman to sternly say: " You don't have to remind us. This is the court of law; we have read all the evidence".

On Wednesday, Ahmad Zaidi stressed that this comment was "a bit naughty and unnecessary".

"The court never goes beyond this trial. This is purely based on the appeal record. We never consider any opinion outside the court," he said, adding that the DPP's comments can invite slander on the judiciary.

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