Malaysian court overturns Syed Saddiq’s corruption conviction

The Malaysian appeal court on Wednesday quashed the corruption conviction of former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, admonishing the lower court for not throwing out the allegations of embezzling funds earlier.

Syed Saddiq, a 33-year-old rising political star, was found guilty in 2023 of abetting a subordinate to withdraw 1 million ringgit (US$235,000) from his party Bersatu’s youth wing account, and misappropriating another 120,000 ringgit to fund his 2018 election campaign.

He was fined 10 million ringgit on top of a seven-year prison sentence but was out on bail pending the appeal.

On Wednesday, a three-member panel in the Court of Appeal unanimously overturned the conviction, ruling that it was the result of “serious misdirection” by the trial judge.

The panel found that the high court judge had made several wrong decisions and that there was no element of dishonesty in Syed Saddiq’s bank withdrawal instructions.

After the ruling, the member of parliament for Muar thanked his supporters.