KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s ex-minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, who was the youngest Cabinet member in the country’s history, was charged on Thursday (July 22) with misappropriating RM1 million (S$323,070) of funds from Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Parti Pribumit Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

Syed Saddiq, 28, was charged in a court in Kuala Lumpur with two counts of criminal breach of trust.

The offence was allegedly committed while he was serving as youth chief of Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s party before the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan administration.

Syed Saddiq currently heads his own party called Muda – Malaysia’s first youth-based political party that sits on the opposition bloc.

Syed Saddiq, who at age 25 became Malaysia’s youngest minister and third youngest elected lawmaker, has said that the charges were politically motivated and an attempt to obtain his support for Mr Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional administration ahead of Parliament reconvening next week.

The Parliament will sit for the first time in 2021 from next Monday, with doubts remaining over Mr Muhyiddin’s wafer-thin majority.

Last year, Syed Saddiq lodged a police report over a sum of RM250,000 that allegedly went missing from a safe at his house in Selangor, which prompted a probe from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

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