KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 22): The prosecution has filed its grounds of appeal against politician Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman's acquittal from his criminal case related to the alleged misuse of Bersatu funds.

In the petition of appeal filed on Monday to the apex court, the prosecution is appealing on a total of 28 grounds against the Court of Appeal’s (COA) decision to acquit the Muar member of Parliament of four charges consisting of abetting criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of party funds, and money laundering.

Among the grounds of appeal, as sighted by The Edge, is that the COA had erred when it found that the prosecution had failed to prove the ingredients of the charges in the case.

The prosecution also says that the COA had erred in its evaluation and rejection of star witness and former Armada assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali's testimony on the grounds that his statement to the authorities may have been given under duress in order to appease the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and to tailor to the prosecution's narrative. The prosecution argues that there is no such evidence to back this up.

The petition of appeal comes after the prosecution filed the notice of appeal on June 26, a day after a three-member COA panel, led by Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, had unanimously overturned the High Court's decision on the grounds that the trial judge had erred in its findings.

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, which the trial judge had failed to consider and appreciate.

Syed Saddiq was appealing against the High Court's 2023 decision, where he had been found guilty of the four charges.

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

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

The young politician had been found guilty of two main charges that were separate and not connected to each other.

For the first charge, Syed Saddiq had been found guilty of abetting Rafiq Hakim in committing criminal breach of trust by withdrawing RM1 million of party funds in March 2020.

For the second charge, Syed Saddiq had been 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.

Read also:
Prosecution appealing Syed Saddiq's acquittal
Syed Saddiq succeeds in appeal over misuse of Bersatu funds, criminal conviction overturned