Global Markets
Home›Global Markets›Emerging Markets›Malaysia’s Federal Court clears Syed Saddiq in corrupt…
Malaysia’s Federal Court clears Syed Saddiq in corruption case
The Federal Court dismissed prosecutors’ final appeal by a 2-1 vote, with prosecutors failing to prove a criminal breach of trust tied to withdrawals from Armada’s account.
Malaysia’s Federal Court cleared former youth minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman after dismissing the prosecutors’ final appeal in his corruption case, ending a six-year legal battle that had raised questions about his political future, according to SCMP Economy.
The court upheld a prior acquittal on four charges linked to funds belonging to Armada, the youth wing of former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Bersatu party. The decision was reached by a 2-1 majority, with Federal Court judges Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Collin Lawrence Sequerah in the majority and Court of Appeal president Abu Bakar Jais dissenting.
In the dissent, Abu Bakar would have convicted Syed Saddiq on three of the four charges, including alleged misappropriation of 120,000 ringgit and two subsequent money laundering transactions.
The majority judgment said prosecutors failed to establish the principal offence of criminal breach of trust involving the withdrawal of 1 million ringgit from Armada’s account, and it also found “no appealable error” in the Court of Appeal’s earlier decision, making the proposed convictions and sentences moot.