KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 — Gobind Singh Deo, the lawyer for Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, called into question the testimony of the prosecution’s star witness as well as how the investigation was conducted.

He told the court that most of the evidence in the trial was word of mouth and not conclusive, especially the testimony of the prosecution’s star witness, former Armada assistant secretary Rafiq Hakim Razali.

Gobind began by repeating what Rafiq had said when he told the court that he was the one who had withdrawn the money from the bank accounts allegedly belonging to Bersatu and their youth wing Armada and not Syed Saddiq.

"My learned friends have kept saying that the accused was in cahoots with Rafiq, abetted him in committing an offence but when put to the deputy public prosecutor what the offence was, he did not say it and we went back and forth arguing this matter before.

"So when given the opportunity to explicitly show where the offence was committed, they could not point out the so-called violation and when confronted with these facts they backtracked and completely abandoned that argument.

"So what exactly is the CBT (criminal breach of trust) charge here that Rafiq committed or my client committed? If none, then this entire case collapses.”

"In our case, the charge says my client abetted Rafiq in committing these offences but we can’t charge him for it if there is no proof,” he added.

According to the first charge, Syed Saddiq, 30, as the then Bersatu Youth wing or Armada chief — who was entrusted with control of Armada funds — abetted Rafiq Hakim Razali, Armada’s assistant treasurer at the time, with CBT of RM1 million in funds belonging to the wing.

He is alleged to have committed the offence at CIMB Bank Berhad, Menara CIMB KL Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 2, here on March 6, 2020, and is charged under Section 406 of the Penal Code, which provides for imprisonment for up to 10 years with whipping, and is liable to a fine, if found guilty.

For the second charge, the accused is charged with misusing property for himself, namely RM120,000 from the Maybank Islamic Berhad account belonging to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise (ABBE), by causing Rafiq to dispose of the money.

Syed Saddiq is accused of having committed the offence at Malayan Banking Berhad, Jalan Pandan 3/6A, Taman Pandan Jaya here, between April 8 and 21, 2018, and charged under Section 403 of the Penal Code, which carries a minimum jail term of six months and a maximum of five years with whipping, and is punishable by a fine, if convicted.

He also faces two counts of engaging in money laundering activities, namely two transactions of RM50,000, believed to be proceeds of unlawful activities, from his Maybank Islamic Berhad account into his Amanah Saham Bumiputera account.

Syed Saddiq is accused of committing the offence at a bank in Jalan Persisiran Perling, Taman Perling, Johor Baru, on June 16 and 19, 2018.

Gobind argued that none of the witnesses who came forth had said that the money was for Syed Saddiq’s own use, only Rafiq who said that he was ordered to withdraw RM1 million from a total of RM1.8 million that was in the bank accounts at the time, by the accused.

The defence has maintained since day one that the money withdrawn was for Syed Saddiq’s personal use for campaigning for the Muar constituency during the build-up to the 14th general elections.

The court was told that Syed Saddiq had conducted several fundraising events and had deposited the money they raised into ABBE’s accounts. Gobind reiterated this in court today.

"Throughout this case every witness agreed there was RM1.8 million in the accounts and it was for use for programmes for the people as at the time we were in the midst of a pandemic, people needed aid and they used the money for these purposes.

"The witnesses have also said all the money was for the use of campaigning and not one of them said the money was for Rafiq or Syed Saddiq’s personal use. In addition the requirement for a ‘working paper’ to withdraw any monies in excess of RM500,000 was never practised. Rafiq’s testimony showed this during cross examination on July 7 last year.

"Rafiq repeatedly said the money was for Syed Saddiq, not Armada. If the money did belong to Armada and Bersatu, why did Rafiq not tell them about the withdrawal when he made it? That should’ve been the first thing he did.

"Why wasn’t it done? Because from the beginning this money belonged to the accused and we find the investigations into this case incomplete and not conclusive,” Gobind concluded.

The prosecution will submit their oral submissions tomorrow morning. The trial is in front of High Court Judge Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid.

The prosecution closed their case after calling 30 witnesses while the defence called five witnesses.