PUTRAJAYA, May 15 — Muar member of Parliament Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman has been granted temporary access to his passport by the Court of Appeal today to enable him to go to Singapore and Taiwan.

Syed Saddiq had applied for the temporary release of his passport to enable him to attend a wedding ceremony of the daughter of his close friend in Singapore this Saturday (May 18) and also to Taiwan, from June 10 until June 15, following an invitation by Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia as one of the representatives for Malaysia to visit Taiwan.

A three-member panel comprising Justices Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Datuk Azmi Ariffin allowed Syed Saddiq’s application after deputy public prosecutor Mohd Afif Ali did not object to it.

Syed Saddiq was ordered to return the passport to the court on or before June 18.

The court also allowed a request by Syed Saddiq’s lawyer, Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, for the court to prepare and issue a letter today to the director-general of Immigration to enable his client to travel overseas.

On November 9 last year, Syed Saddiq was sentenced to seven years in jail and fined RM10 million and two strokes of the cane by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur after being found guilty of four charges of criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of funds and money laundering.

He subsequently filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal on the same day.

Syed Saddiq, 31, who was Youth and Sports Minister from 2018 to 2020, was charged with abetting former Armada assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali, who was entrusted with RM1 million of Armada’s funds, to commit criminal breach of trust 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.

For the second charge, he was accused of misappropriating RM120,000 from Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise’s Maybank Islamic Bhd account by making Rafiq dispose of the money.

Syed Saddiq was also charged with two counts 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.

The High Court had allowed Syed Saddiq’s application to stay the execution of all sentences pending appeal. ― Bernama