Court releases Syed Saddiq’s passport for Bangkok trip

Court releases Syed Saddiq’s passport for Bangkok trip

The former youth and sports minister says he is not a flight risk and had surrendered his passport upon his return home previously.

Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman plans to travel to Bangkok on Friday to attend a business event.
PUTRAJAYA:
The Court of Appeal has granted Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman the temporary release of his passport for travel to Bangkok, Thailand, this weekend.

This is his fourth overseas visit since he was charged with corruption in 2021.

A three-member bench chaired by Justice Che Ruzima Ghazali also ordered the former Muda president to return the travel document by Aug 19.

Also on the panel hearing the application were Justices Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Noorin Badaruddin.

Lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told the bench his client had submitted an application with supporting documents earlier this week as he wanted to be in Bangkok on Friday to attend the Asean Halal Pavilion event at the invitation of a business group.

He said the former youth and sports minister, who had accepted the invitation, would return home the following day.

In his supporting affidavit, Syed Saddiq said he was not a flight risk and that he had left the county previously, and had returned his passport to court upon his return.

Deputy public prosecutor Afif Ali said the prosecution had, after reviewing the cause papers, deemed the application to be reasonable and had no objection to it.

On Nov 9, Syed Saddiq was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison and fined RM10 million after being convicted of abetting criminal breach of trust, the misappropriation of assets and money laundering.

Justice Azhar Abdul Hamid sentenced him to three years in prison and one stroke of the rotan on the CBT charge.

Syed Saddiq was also sentenced to another two years in prison and one stroke of the rotan for the embezzlement of assets belonging to the youth wing of Bersatu.

Both of these sentences are to run consecutively, meaning he will serve five years.

Azhar also imposed a prison term of two years each for the two counts of money laundering, and a fine of RM5 million each. He ordered these two sentences to run concurrently.

The judge, however, allowed an application by the defence to stay the sentences pending appeal.

He also ordered that all bail conditions be retained pending the appeal, including the sum of RM300,000 posted by Syed Saddiq when initially charged.

Syed Saddiq, 31, is the first elected representative ordered to be whipped for a white-collar crime under the Penal Code. The law exempts those aged 50 and above from the punishment.

The Court of Appeal has yet to fix a date for Syed Saddiq’s appeal, as the appeal records that include the grounds of judgment are still not ready.

The appeal has been scheduled for case management on Sept 20.

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