Malaysia’s Federal Court dismissed the prosecution’s final appeal Monday, upholding the acquittal of Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman on four corruption and money-laundering charges tied to funds belonging to Armada, the youth wing of his former party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.
The three-judge panel split 2-1. Justices Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Collin Lawrence Sequerah formed the majority that dismissed the appeal; Court of Appeal President Abu Bakar Jais, who chaired the panel, dissented. The ruling closes a legal saga that began in March 2020, when the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission opened its investigation into Syed Saddiq, then the country’s youth and sports minister.
Justice Ruzima’s written reasoning held that the withdrawal of Armada funds by itself did not amount to criminal breach of trust, and that Bersatu’s party constitution was an internal organizational document rather than a legal instrument whose violation could constitute a crime. Because prosecutors had not established the underlying offense against Rafiq Hakim Razali, Armada’s former assistant treasurer, the abetment charge against Syed Saddiq could not stand either, Ruzima found. Sequerah concurred, supplying the majority needed to dismiss the case.
Abu Bakar’s dissent would have convicted Syed Saddiq on three of the four charges, though he acknowledged his position had been outvoted. Reading the court’s operative ruling as the panel’s chairperson, he said the bench found “no appealable error on the part of the Court of Appeal” and dismissed each of the prosecution’s appeals.
Prosecutors had charged Syed Saddiq in 2021 with abetting Rafiq in misappropriating roughly 1 million ringgit, or about $245,000, withdrawn from Armada’s account at a CIMB Bank branch in Kuala Lumpur’s KL Sentral complex on March 6, 2020, an offense that under Malaysia’s Penal Code carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, caning and a fine. A second charge accused him of misusing 120,000 ringgit belonging to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise from a Maybank Islamic account between April 8 and 21, 2018. Two additional counts alleged he laundered 50,000 ringgit each, transferred into his personal Amanah Saham Bumiputera investment account in June 2018, for a combined 100,000 ringgit, charges brought under Malaysia’s anti-money-laundering law that carry a maximum 15-year sentence.
The High Court convicted Syed Saddiq on all four charges on Nov. 9, 2023, sentencing him to seven years in prison, two strokes of the cane and a 10 million ringgit fine, or about $2.45 million. The Court of Appeal overturned that conviction on June 25, 2025, ruling that prosecutors had failed to establish their case, and the attorney general’s chambers appealed that acquittal to the Federal Court. The panel heard arguments roughly six months before Monday’s ruling; a decision originally set for June 30 was postponed after Ruzima fell ill and was placed on medical leave. Deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, who leads the prosecution team, said at the time that such delays were “not unusual” and that his side would await the judge’s recovery.
Applause broke out inside the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya as the judges finished reading their decisions, with Syed Saddiq’s family, supporters and legal team gathered in the courtroom.
Syed Saddiq rose to national prominence in 2018 as one of the youngest cabinet ministers in Malaysian history, taking the youth and sports portfolio at 25 under the Pakatan Harapan government that then held power. He was later expelled from Bersatu, the party through which he had entered politics, and went on to found the youth-focused Malaysian United Democratic Alliance, known as MUDA, positioning himself as a voice for younger voters largely shut out of the country’s established parties. He has continued to represent the southern Johor constituency of Muar in Parliament as an independent lawmaker throughout the case, retaining his seat in the years since his conviction and subsequent acquittal.
Speaking to reporters afterward, he thanked his mother, Shariffah Mahani Syed Abdul Aziz, and his fiancée, actress and singer Bella Astillah, for standing by him through the case. He said their relationship began only after the High Court had already convicted him, calling the period “not easy” for her, and said he would leave any announcement about wedding plans for a later date out of respect for the judicial process.
Monday’s decision is final under Malaysian law, which provides no further avenue of appeal beyond the Federal Court.
