Malaysian ex-minister Syed Saddiq gets 7 years in jail, whipping for embezzlement
- A Kuala Lumpur court found the Muda leader guilty of embezzling more than US$200,000 of funds for a political party
- Syed Saddiq, who held back tears as the verdict was read out, also risks losing his seat of Muar
Former Malaysian minister and the leader of the youth-facing Muda movement Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman was sentenced to seven years in jail and two lashes of the whip after a Kuala Lumpur court on Thursday found him guilty of embezzling more than US$200,000 of funds for a political party.
The 31-year-old rising star of Malaysian politics was accused of abetting a subordinate to withdraw 1 million ringgit (US$213,538) from the account of the Bersatu party, while he served as youth chief from 2016 to 2020.
Syed Saddiq was also found guilty of misappropriating a further 120,000 ringgit (US$25,650) from another party-affiliated account to fund his election campaign.
Delivering his ruling, High Court judge Azhar Abdul Hamid said the accused, who faced a total of four charges, had failed to raise reasonable doubt over the allegations and therefore “the court finds the accused guilty of all charges”.
The court, which also imposed a 10 million ringgit (US$2.1 million) fine on Syed Saddiq, granted him a stay of sentencing while he mounts an appeal.
He is at the risk of losing his seat as the threshold of penalty for a parliamentarian is 2,000 ringgit (US$427) or more than six months in jail.
