'MACC intentionally delayed prosecuting Syed Saddiq to pressure him'

 

Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s legal team implied that the MACC intentionally stalled prosecuting the Muar MP to politically pressure him, the court heard today.

During his misappropriation trial involving RM1.2 million of funds belonging to Bersatu Youth, defence counsel Gobind Singh Deo asked MACC investigating officer Syahmeizy Sulong if the MACC had called Syed Saddiq on several occasions between January and July 2021 to tell the lawmaker to prepare to be charged in court.

Gobind alleged that the calls were made by another MACC officer, Mohd Ihsan Sapuan, upon the instructions of high MACC officials,

Syahmeizy denied the claims.

Gobind: You got the permission to prosecute him in January 2021, however, you did not make the arrest until July 31. That is your statement.

Syahmeizy: Yes.

Gobind: And that wasn’t because you wanted to arrest him, it was ordered by a higher-ranked official, right? If you had not been given the order, you would not have arrested him, correct?

Syahmeizy: Yes.

Gobind: It’s strange isn’t it, that permission was given by the deputy public prosecutor, but an MACC investigating officer was waiting on orders.

Syahmeizy later admitted that the order to arrest Syed Saddiq in July 2021 came from the chief of B Division named Abdul Malik.

He later told the court that the delay was such because there were five investigation papers opened against the Muar MP, and a proper order was needed before the MACC could act.

Gobind countered this, alleging that Syahmeizy had no clue of the reason for the delay, as it was beyond his authority as an investigation officer.

“You don’t know (why there was a delay), you just conducted the investigations. The real reason was known by the deputy public prosecutor,” he added.

‘Ihsan Sapuan’

Yesterday, Syahmeizy testified that he had no idea whether an MACC officer known only as “Ihsan Sapuan” had ever met Syed Saddiq to express sympathy to the accused over the investigation against the lawmaker.

Defence counsel Gobind Singh Deo

The MACC officer confirmed to Gobind that an officer with that name does exist in the MACC.

The lawyer proceeded to read out the transcript of an alleged conversation between Ihsan and Syed Saddiq that purportedly took place at the lawmaker’s house in Petaling Jaya on July 12 last year.

Gobind read out the part that claimed Ihsan said Syed Saddiq did not abide by certain requests from unspecified people from above, to which the accused allegedly said he is not “pencacai politik” and refused to sign any statutory declaration (SD) to support then premier Muhyiddin Yassin.

Part of the transcript allegedly had Ihsan admit that the MACC became a victim and a tool when the change of government from the Pakatan Harapan administration to Perikatan Nasional happened two years ago.

“I also wish to say that I am on YB (Syed Saddiq) side. I follow YB on IG (Instagram). YB can do work, but YB is a victim. Like a middleman, we are done here then,” the transcript of the alleged conversation said as read by Gobind.

The court later allowed the one-hour audio recording of the alleged conversation to be played out, and then permitted it to be labelled as IDD rather than be tendered as an exhibit.

Under the trial procedure, an IDD or identified document has less weight for court consideration in a case compared to a full tendered exhibit.

It is not known whether Ihsan would be called as a witness in the trial.

Proceedings before trial judicial commissioner Azhar Abdul Hamid will resume tomorrow morning.

The four charges

Syed Saddiq is on trial over four charges.

In one of the four charges, namely for criminal breach of trust (CBT), the 29-year-old is accused of withdrawing RM1 million via a CIMB Bank Berhad cheque in his capacity as then Bersatu Youth chief without the permission of the party’s supreme council.

He was purported to have committed the offence at CIMB Bank Berhad, Menara CIMB KL Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 2, Kuala Lumpur, on March 6, 2020.

The CBT charge is framed under Section 405 of the Penal Code and is punishable under Section 406 of the same law, which provides a jail term of up to 10 years, with whipping and a fine as well.

Syed Saddiq was also charged with misusing RM120,000 in contributions for the 14th general election campaign raised through a Maybank Islamic Berhad account belonging to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise (ABBE) at Maybank Islamic Berhad, Jalan Pandan 3/6A, Taman Pandan Jaya, between April 8 and 21, 2018.

He may be imprisoned for up to five years, with whipping and a fine under Section 403 of the Penal Code.

He was also charged with two counts of money laundering, involving two transactions of RM50,000 alleged to be proceeds of unlawful activities, from his Maybank Islamic Berhad account into his Amanah Saham Bumiputera account at a bank in Jalan Persisiran Perling, Taman Perling, Johor Bahru, on June 16 and June 19, 2018.

These charges fall under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, which are punishable under Section 4(1) of the same act, providing maximum imprisonment of 15 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount, or the proceeds of the illegal activities. - Mkini