PUTRAJAYA (July 13): Malaysia’s highest court has in a 2-1 majority decision dismissed the prosecution’s final appeal against Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s conviction and sentence in his criminal case.
The member of Parliament for Muar remains clear of all four charges of abetting criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of party funds, and money laundering — and stays a free man.
Federal Court judges Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah formed the majority decision. The bench chair, Court of Appeal (COA) President Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Jais, was the dissenting judge.
All three judges read out summaries of their individual judgements on Monday.
All three judges clear Syed Saddiq of abetment of CBT, Abu Bakar finds Syed Saddiq guilty of misappropriation
However, it has to be noted that Abu Bakar only dissented in part, as he found Syed Saddiq guilty of three of the four charges, namely the misappropriation of party funds of RM120,000 in April 2018 and two money-laundering charges linked to this.
The former youth and sports minister was accused of misappropriating funds belonging to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise (ABBE), a company set up to generate income for Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s youth wing, Armada, through merchandise sales. The sum was transferred to Syed Saddiq’s personal Maybank account.
Syed Saddiq has maintained that these monies, from two fundraising events, were reimbursement of his monies spent on his campaign in Muar during the 14th general election in 2018.
The COA had found that the monies belonged to Syed Saddiq and that there is “not an iota of evidence” to show that the fund belonged to ABBE.
The COA had ruled that the monies were Syed Saddiq’s, held merely in trust in ABBE’s account. If anything, the COA added that the charges could have been avoided if the sum had been deposited to Syed Saddiq’s personal account to begin with.
Differing from the court below, Abu Bakar found that the money belonged to the donors and not Syed Saddiq.
He added that the element of misappropriation was proven as the donors were never informed that Syed Saddiq would transfer the monies to his personal account.
"It is not for [Syed Saddiq] to use it as he pleases," Abu Bakar said, adding that he did not see the need for an elaborate transfer from one account to another.
"Why can’t it go directly to his Maybank account?" asked the judge.
For this, Abu Bakar sentenced Syed Saddiq to six months’ imprisonment and one stroke of the rotan. He also meted out six months’ imprisonment and RM5 million each for the two money-laundering charges.
Abu Bakar stressed that the law explicitly states that imprisonment is included for this offence.
However, as this decision was in the minority, Abu Bakar’s sentence is not applicable.
Both Che Ruzima and Sequerah, however found that the COA’s decision was sound and upheld it. They added that as the main (predicate) charge of misappropriation falls, so, too, must the two ensuing money-laundering charges.
WATCH: Syed Saddiq remains free
Abetment CBT: Money withdrawal in line with party constiitution
All three judges agreed that according to the party’s constitution, the withdrawal of RM1 million was not an offence, and the money was used legitimately for party purposes.
For the abetment charge, Syed Saddiq was charged with abetting former Armada assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali in committing CBT by withdrawing RM1 million of party funds in March 2020.
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.
In its verdict, the COA had found that the prosecution had failed to prove ingredients of the offence and that the withdrawal was not wrong according to the party’s constitution.