Defence rests case in Syed Saddiq’s CBT and money-laundering trial

KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — The defence today rested its case after calling four witnesses to testify in former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s criminal breach of trust and money laundering trial.

Lead defence counsel Gobind Singh Deo said they would not call the last witness, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer Mohd Ihsan Sapuan, only asking Syed Saddiq to identify him in court, having not done so previously.

Proceedings began with yesterday’s witness Siti Nurul Hidayah, who is Syed Saddiq’s former aide, taking the stand to acknowledge the police report that she lodged against MACC for allegedly roughing her up during questioning over the case in 2020.

After identifying Ihsan in court, Gobind requested a 15-minute break, and upon resumption, rested the defence’s case.

When met later, Gobind said they already had Ihsan’s transcripts and an audio recording of the conversation he had with Syed Saddiq which he said would suffice.

“Syed in his evidence referred to a conversation he had on July 12, 2021 at his house in Muar and he positively identified those he had a conversation with and that conversation has been transcribed. Today, he identified that person he says as Ihsan in court, and earlier, Hidayah also identified him as being the person who held himself as the IO himself.

“Our position is that we have adduced sufficient evidence for the purposes of making a point that there was a conversation where certain things were said. It was up to the prosecution to decide whether they wanted to call a witness to deny that, but they didn’t.

“We have sufficient material on record to make a submission that the conversation did take place and the evidence in the transcripts reflects the contents of that conversation,” he said when met.

Ihsan has been at the centre of this case as he had said in the audio recording that the MACC was being used by the government of the day as a tool to harass its opponents.

Ihsan can be heard telling Syed Saddiq to support Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s leadership. He then told Syed Saddiq that Muhyiddin likes him and asked him who was the one that brought Saddiq in, to which Saddiq responded that it was Muhyiddin.

Ihsan has never taken the stand.

Apart from Siti, the others who took the stand were former Bersatu Youth information chief Ulya Aqamah Husamudin, former aide to Syed Saddiq when he was youth and sports minister Mohamed Amshar Aziz, and Syed Saddiq himself.

The Muar MP has maintained his innocence and that the money he used was raised through fundraising activities he had conducted during campaigning for the 14th general election.

In this trial Syed Saddiq has two charges pinned against him, which are charges of abetting in criminal breach of trust (CBT), misappropriation of assets and money laundering.

According to the first charge, Syed Saddiq, is charged as the then Bersatu Youth wing or Armada chief — who was entrusted with control of Armada funds — of abetting Rafiq Hakim Razali, Armada’s assistant treasurer at the time, with CBT of RM1 million in funds belonging to the wing.

He is alleged to have committed the offence at CIMB Bank Berhad, Menara CIMB KL Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 2, here on March 6, 2020, and is charged under Section 406 of the Penal Code, which provides for imprisonment for up to 10 years with whipping, and is liable to a fine, if found guilty.

For the second charge, the accused is charged with misusing property for himself, namely RM120,000 from the Maybank Islamic Berhad account belonging to ABBE, by causing Rafiq to dispose of the money.

Syed Saddiq is accused of having committed the offence at Malayan Banking Berhad, Jalan Pandan 3/6A, Taman Pandan Jaya here, between April 8 and 21, 2018, and charged under Section 403 of the Penal Code, which carries a minimum jail term of six months and a maximum of five years with whipping, and is punishable by a fine, if convicted.

He also faces two counts of engaging in money laundering activities, namely two transactions of RM50,000, believed to be proceeds of unlawful activities, from his Maybank Islamic Berhad account into his Amanah Saham Bumiputera account.

Syed Saddiq is accused of committing the offence at a bank in Jalan Persisiran Perling, Taman Perling, Johor Baru, on June 16 and 19, 2018.

Rafiq has turned prosecution witness and said his former boss had asked him to withdraw RM1 million from Armada’s bank accounts and put it into his personal account as he feared the worst following the political turmoil at the time.

High Court Judge Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid then set April 3 for written submissions and April 10 and 11 for oral submissions.