THE prime minister must explain in Parliament if the criminal charges preferred against Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman yesterday were politically motivated. 

The Iskandar Puteri MP said Muhyiddin Yassin must also explain why the former youth and sports minister was charged seven months after the consent to prosecute had been given. 

The DAP leader said Muhyiddin must make these explanations in the form of a ministerial statement in Parliament when it meets for a special briefing next week. 

“If Muhyiddin is unable to give a satisfactory explanation, then Syed Saddiq’s charge that his prosecution was politically motivated stands,” Lim said in a statement.

He added that it would also prove that Syed Saddiq was correct in his warning that several other MPs were also being “targeted” by the authorities with corruption investigations. 

He also said that it was unacceptable and a gross abuse of state institutions to prosecute or penalise MPs just to save the government of the day. 

Syed Saddiq, the Muar MP and a founder of Muhyiddin’s party, was charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court yesterday with two counts of misappropriating his former party funds to the sum of RM1.12 million. 

In the first charge, he is accused of misappropriating RM1 million via a CIMB cheque, at CIMB Bank, KL Sentral, Kuala Lumpur, on March 6 last year.

He is charged under Section 405 of the Penal Code for criminal breach of trust and faces up to 10 years in jail, caning and a fine if found guilty for the first charge. 

In the second charge, he is accused of withdrawing RM120,000 from Maybank Islamic Bhd in Taman Pandan Jaya, Kuala Lumpur in April 2018. 

The Muda president has pleaded not guilty to both charges. 

In a press conference later, Syed Saddiq said the allegations against him were unfair and that the RM1 million withdrawn from a Bersatu account was used to deliver aid to parliamentary constituencies under the party. 

He also said the RM120,000 raised during the fundraising events on April 8 and 9, 2018 were for his 2018 general election campaign in Muar and were not meant for Bersatu. 

He has also launched a crowdfunding campaign to help pay for his legal cost as well as his RM330,000 bail. 

He was released from detention after posting the first RM80,000 of the bail yesterday, with the remaining RM250,000 to be paid by next Tuesday. – July 23, 2021.