KUALA LUMPUR: Muar member of parliament Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman's counsels reiterated their stance that the RM1 million withdrawn from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) youth wing (Armada) bank account was never for his personal use.
This was submitted orally by Syed Saddiq's lead counsel Gobind Singh Deo to High Court Judge Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid at the end of defence's case today.
He said the funds, withdrawn by former Bersatu assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali, were meant for organising activities coincided with the party's goals as well as to fight for social justice and safeguard the people's welfare, in accordance with Article 4.2 and Article 6.10 of the party constitution.
There was a balance of RM1.8 million available in Armada's CIMB bank account at the time of the withdrawal to meet the party's purpose and objectives, he submitted.
"At that material time, the country was hit by Covid-19 pandemic, which caused severe hardships to Malaysians as early as January 2020 and a Movement Control Order (MCO) was put into effect on March 18 the same year, which resulted in lockdown and impacted people's livelihoods, both in terms of health and economically.
"Therefore, a sum of RM1 million was withdrawn from Armada's official CIMB account to assist with Covid-19, Ramadan, Aidilfitri and welfare assistance.
"At no time was the RM1 million funds were in the accused's (Syed Saddiq) direct custody and control personally, and neither any of the sum spent by him personally.
"The monies were distributed on request of an ad-hoc basis to those in need, and this was done through Rafiq and several other members of Armada," he said.
In his lengthy submissions that took almost three hours' time, Gobind also submitted that Syed Saddiq's charge under Section 405 of the Penal Code for abetting Rafiq with criminal breach of trust involving the RM1 million funds should be demolished, as the charge sheet explicitly states that Rafiq had acted dishonestly.
However, he said, the prosecution has not proffered any argument to suggest Rafiq's had acted dishonestly, nor challenged any evidence that support the facts that Rafiq was not dishonest in withdrawing and utilising the funds for the people's welfare, that constituted misappropriation.
"In fact, defence witnesses support the contention that the monies were used for lawful purposes and in accordance with the party's constitution.
"Following this, it is our respectful submission that without evidence of Rafiq misappropriating the funds, the allegation of dishonesty against him in the charge sheet crumbles and resulted in an instant failure on prosecution's part to prove abetment against the accused for the same exact offence," he said.
Earlier, he had called one of his counsel Asyraaf Abu Bakar Hamzah to testify as the fifth defence witness in the case.
The lawyer testified that he had taken up the role to print nine documents including two posters about Syed Saddiq's fundraising dinners that was held in Ampang, here, and Muar, Johor in 2018, that are related to the case.
Syed Saddiq, 30, is charged with one count of abetting Rafiq in criminal breach of trust involving RM1 million of the organisation's funds.
The court also ordered him to enter his defence against three other charges of misusing property for himself involving RM120,000 from a Maybank Islamic Bhd account belonging to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise, by causing Rafiq to dispose of the money; and two counts of engaging in money laundering involving two transactions of RM50,000, believed to be proceeds of unlawful activities from his Maybank Islamic Bhd account into his Amanah Saham Bumiputera account.
The court then adjourned today's proceeding and will resume tomorrow to hear the deputy public prosecution's submissions.