November 9, 2023 2:00 AM EST
Malaysia’s former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman was sentenced to seven years in jail and two strokes of the cane after he was found guilty of charges including misappropriating funds, the Star newspaper reported.
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Syed Saddiq, 30, was also fined 10 million ringgit ($2.1 million) by the country’s High Court in a decision announced on Thursday, the paper said. His other charges were abetting in a criminal breach of trust and money laundering, it said.
Funds that Syed Saddiq was accused of misappropriating were from Armada, the youth wing of his former party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia. He had denied wrongdoing.
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Syed Saddiq was the youngest ever in Malaysia to be appointed minister when he was named to Cabinet by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 2018.