PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal will hold a case management session on April 24 to decide when it will deliver its verdict in Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s appeal against his criminal conviction and sentence.
The former youth and sports minister is appealing his conviction and sentence involving charges of criminal breach of trust (CBT), misappropriation of funds and money laundering.
A three-member panel comprising Justices Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, Azman Abdullah, and Noorin Badaruddin reserved judgment after hearing final submissions from both the prosecution and defence yesterday.
During proceedings, deputy public prosecutors Farah Ezlin Yusop Khan and Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin urged the court to uphold the High Court’s ruling, arguing that the prosecution’s case was sound and that the conviction was properly secured.
Farah Ezlin described Syed Saddiq’s claim that RM120,000 had been transferred to his personal account as a reimbursement for campaign spending during the 14th General Election as an “afterthought.”
She told the court that key witnesses – former Armada assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali and Syed Saddiq’s ex-private secretary Siti Nurul Hidayah – were never informed of any such plans.
Meanwhile, Wan Shaharuddin addressed the first charge under Section 406 of the Penal Code, which involved abetting a RM1mil CBT in March 2020.
He asserted that Syed Saddiq had ordered Rafiq to “clear” the cash to prevent it from being seized by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, calling him the “mastermind” of the operation.
Wan Shaharuddin urged the court to look at the case in totality, not in isolated parts, and called on the panel to uphold the original sentence – seven years in jail, a RM10mil fine, and two strokes of the cane.
Speaking to the media after the hearing, Syed Saddiq reiterated his belief in the judiciary and maintained his innocence.
“Not a single sen of the RM1mil Armada fund went into my account or was used for personal purposes. It was all spent on party welfare programmes,” he said.
