PUTRAJAYA, Nov 12 — Muar Member of Parliament Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman was granted access to his passport by the Court of Appeal today to enable him to travel to Jakarta, Indonesia.

He applied for the temporary release of his passport to attend a workshop titled “Building Your Coalition” and a public forum, “Special Conversation with YB Syed Saddiq: Reflection on Pursuing a Healthy and Resilient Democracy”, organised by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia, from Nov 14 to 16.

A three-judge panel comprising Court of Appeal judges Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali, Datuk Azman Abdullah and Datuk Azmi Ariffin granted Syed Saddiq’s application after deputy public prosecutor Mohd A’fif Ali did not object to it.

Syed Saddiq was represented by lawyer Kee Wei Lon.

The Court of Appeal had previously approved similar applications from Syed Saddiq earlier this year, allowing him to attend a wedding in Singapore and visit Taiwan at the invitation of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia in May.

In August, he was granted permission to attend the launch of the Asean Halal Pavilion in Bangkok, Thailand, organised by the Tahira Group.

On Nov 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 he was found guilty of four charges of criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of funds and money laundering.

He 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 for a stay of execution of all sentences pending appeal.

The case management has been set for Nov 25. — Bernama