KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 — Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who has been charged with four counts of criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of funds from a political party and money laundering, and the prosecution were both given a final warning not to share or make any comment on social media about the case as long as it is pending in court.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid gave the ultimatum after deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin informed the High Court about a police report filed yesterday over a Twitter post from the accused's account relating to court testimony involving former Bersatu Youth assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali, a witness in the trial.

"I recall Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan also commenting on this before, and also advised about this, so let this be a final warning to all parties not to make such comments anymore," Azhar said, referring to another judge.

Wan Shaharudin had earlier said that the prosecution is considering citing Syed Saddiq for contempt of court over the tweet.

But defence counsel Gobind Singh Deo clarified that the contentious social media post was just a retweet from someone else and that he had told Syed Saddiq to remove it from his account, and that the latter had complied.

"It wasn't intentional and he deleted it and I told him this is something he cannot do. We have taken full notice of this and I want to reiterate that the tweet was not his own, it was a retweet," Gobind said.

Syed Saddiq, who was in the dock, apologised for taking to social media.

The court was supposed to hear arguments concerning the defence's bid to impeach Rafiq as a witness today.

Gobind argued that the prosecution was taking evidence from an oral statement and then having the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) or a third party write up Rafiq's witness statement that was to be tendered in court.

Gobind added that the defence did not have a copy of Rafiq's witness statement and could only obtain his testimony through cross-examination in court, which was how the contradicting remarks emerged.

He argued that it was an abuse of the court process and accused the prosecution of "treading on thin ice".

But Wan Shaharuddin countered that Gobind was sidestepping the issue, adding that oral evidence was obtained from the Rafiq's witness statement and was therefore admissible to the court.

Azhar adjourned hearing to July 18 after both sides submitted their arguments and said he would decide whether or not the impeachment should proceed.