KUALA LUMPUR: Muda’s sole parliamentarian Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has been slapped with a total of nine years’ jail for abetting in criminal breach of trust (CBT), misappropriation of funds and money laundering.
However, the Muar MP will only serve seven years in prison as the two-year jail term for each of the two charges under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLATFPUAA) will run consecutively.
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On the CBT charges, Syed Saddiq was sentenced to three years in jail and one stroke of the rotan, and another two years’ jail and one stroke for embezzlement involving assets belonging to his former party’s youth wing, Armada Bersatu.
He is the first politician in the country to be sentenced to whipping, confirmed deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, who led the prosecution team.
High Court judge Justice Azhar Abdul Hamid, who delivered the sentences yesterday, said both prison sentences for the charges framed under Sections 406 and 403 of the Penal Code would run consecutively.
Syed Saddiq, who was youth and sports minister from 2018 to 2020, was also fined RM10mil in total.
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However, the High Court here allowed Syed Saddiq’s application to stay the execution of all sentences pending appeal.
Justice Azhar Abdul Hamid also allowed the defence’s requests to maintain the existing bail of RM330,000.
During the mitigation submission before sentencing, defence lawyer Haijan Omar requested lighter sentences for Syed Saddiq considering his contributions as an MP and as a former minister.
“During his tenure as minister, the accused was tasked with leading historic amendments to the Federal Constitution, which were Undi18 and automatic voter registration.
“In policy making, he had also successfully helped increase the internship allowance in the public sector from RM300 to RM900 effective 2019,” he said.
(Undi18 lowered the voting age from 21 to 18).
Haijan also said the 31-year-old was looking after his ailing parents.
Another counsel defending Syed Saddiq, Gobind Singh Deo, told the court there were mitigating factors in which quarters accepted the fact that Syed Saddiq did not use the money for personal purposes.
Gobind said the evidence showed that the money was used to help people during the Covid-19 pandemic and for other charitable purposes.
However, Wan Shaharuddin argued that the court should consider preventive punishments that would serve as a deterrent to other politicians.
“Regardless of your age, be it 50 or 30 years old, when you’re given the trust but breach it, the court must impose a punishment that acts as a deterrent so that other politicians would contemplate before they commit a crime.
“He was not in a position to use the funds as he wanted because the money did not belong to him,” he said before the sentences were read out.
Wan Shaharuddin also said he hoped that Syed Saddiq would be able to improve himself and be a better politician as he is still young.
“We pray that the accused will be a better person, even better than now, after he serves his sentences.
“He is still young and he still has a lot of time to change for the better,” he added.
Later, he told reporters that whipping only applied to male offenders under the age of 50.
“According to Section 289 (c) of the Criminal Procedure Code 2007, female offenders, men sentenced to death and men over the age 50 cannot be whipped,” he said.
Also present in court was Syed Saddiq’s father Syed Abdul Rahman Abdullah Alsagoff, mother Shariffah Mahani Syed Abdul Aziz, his brother, and several Muda party members.
On Oct 28 last year, the High Court here ordered Syed Saddiq to enter his defence after the prosecution successfully established a prima facie case against him.
The former minister was charged with abetting former Armada assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali, who was entrusted with RM1mil of Armada’s funds, to commit CBT by misappropriating the funds.
The offence was allegedly committed at CIMB Bank Bhd, Menara CIMB KL Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 2 here on March 6, 2020, and the charge was framed under Section 406 of the Penal Code.
On the second charge under Section 403 of the Penal Code, he is accused of misappropriating RM120,000 from Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise’s Maybank Islamic Bhd account by making Rafiq dispose of the money.
For the two charges framed under Section 4(1)(b) of AMLATFPUAA he was accused of laundering money via transactions of RM50,000 each, believed to be proceeds from unlawful activities, from his Maybank Islamic Bhd account into his Amanah Saham Bumiputera account in a bank at Jalan Persisiran Perling, Taman Perling, Johor Baru, on June 16 and 19, 2018.
