Prosecution rests case in Syed Saddiq’s trial, court fixes Oct 6 for oral submissions

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — The prosecution today rested its case after calling a total of 29 out of 37 witnesses to testify in court against former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman who is accused of misappropriating more than RM1 million as well as criminal breach of trust (CBT).

Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said they would not be calling anymore witnesses following today’s cross-examination of three investigating officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

The witnesses, ranging from Syed Saddiq’s parents and star prosecution witness Rafiq Hakim Razali — who is the former Angkatan Bersatu Anak Muda (Armada) assistant treasurer — to MACC officers and members of Syed Saddiq’s Armada team, took the stand in the trial that spanned 21 days.

During today’s proceedings, Syed Saddiq’s defence counsel Gobind Singh Deo raised an issue in which he pointed out that one of the MACC investigating officers Nurul Hidayah Kamaruddin had not been served or shown the defence’s statements before the trial began.

Gobind said Section 62 of the MACC Act 2009 states that the law requires the defence to hand over to the prosecution a statement of defence before the trial.

He said this had been done to show that the money raised and used by Syed Saddiq during his campaigning in Muar were for political purposes and not for his personal use, as what the prosecution had alleged.

Gobind asked why the investigating officers were not given the defence statement so they could look into the source of Syed Saddiq’s income. The other MACC officers were Asbi Munir and Mohd Syahmeizy Sulong.

“That’s why when I cross-examined her and she said she hadn’t seen it, it was a concern for us. We also asked them a month ago if she had investigated the matter and she hadn’t.

“We submitted our statements in June so when she said she hadn’t seen them today that becomes a question of how to put before the court we had given them this document?

“The judge ruled that he can’t admit the actual Section 62 defence as under the rules of the evidence only the maker must tender the statement and not produce it through the investigating officer.

“But I managed to get Datuk Wan to concede that on June 20 this year, we delivered the defence, and in it, we delivered a copy of this declaration. Now the argument is what’s the purpose of Section 62?” he said.

Gobind said that Syed Saddiq had all the receipts to show his expenditure at the material time in 2018, while also pointing out to the three investigating officers today that he had a steady flow of income from 2011.

He said the total expenditure for campaigning in Muar in 2018 was RM171,675.

When Gobind asked if any of the officers had investigated Syed Saddiq’s sources of income, all of them answered in the negative.

They said they had only investigated what they were told to, nor did they investigate other members of Bersatu to see if they too had also declared their expenditure to Bersatu’s supreme council as they should have.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid ruled that Section 62 cannot be tendered by Nurul Hidayah and must be tendered by the defence.

He then set October 6 for oral submissions after the prosecution rested its case.

Syed Saddiq, 30, is charged as the then Bersatu youth wing or Armada chief, who was entrusted with control of its funds, with abetting Rafiq Hakim with CBT of RM1mil in funds belonging to the wing at CIMB Bank Bhd, Menara CIMB KL Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 2, here on March 6, 2020.

For the second charge, Syed Saddiq is alleged to have misused property for himself, namely RM120,000 from the Maybank Islamic Bhd account belonging to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise, by causing Rafiq Hakim to dispose of the money at Malayan Banking Bhd, Jalan Pandan 3/6A, Taman Pandan Jaya here, between April 8 and 21, 2018.

He also faced two counts of engaging in money-laundering activities, namely two transactions of RM50,000 each believed to be proceeds from unlawful activities, from his Maybank Islamic Bhd account into his Amanah Saham Bumiputra account at a bank in Jalan Persisiran Perling, Taman Perling, Johor Baru, on June 16 and 19, 2018.