Da'i Syed Acquitted Of Rape, 10-Year Jail Sentence And Caning Overturned

Malaysia's Court of Appeal acquitted celebrity preacher Da'i Syed of rape on 4 November in a 2-1 majority ruling, setting aside his conviction, 10-year jail sentence and three strokes of the cane.

The decision allowed his final appeal over an alleged incident in 2019.

The majority found that Syed had raised reasonable doubt over consent. It considered the complainant's continued messages seeking his attention and another meeting, and her police report lodged 441 days after the incident.

The judges also held that depression and naivety did not automatically establish a lack of consent. The dissenting judge, however, found that her psychiatric conditions supported the absence of consent and that Syed had exploited her longstanding depression.

Syed, 31, whose full name is Syed Shah Iqmal Syed Mohd Shaiful, and his wife, television host Hana Ismail, wept upon hearing the verdict.

Justice Azman Abdullah advised him against abusing his popularity or exploiting emotionally vulnerable individuals.

He was charged in December 2020 with raping a then 23-year-old woman at an I-City condominium in Shah Alam on 11 September 2019.

Initially acquitted in April 2023 without being called to defend himself, he was ordered to enter his defence after the High Court overturned that decision in March 2024.

The Sessions Court convicted him in August 2024.

He spent 21 days in prison before receiving a stay of execution, but the High Court upheld his conviction and sentence in January 2026 and ordered imprisonment to begin immediately.

His lawyers subsequently argued that intercourse was consensual, while prosecutors maintained that witness and medical evidence supported the rape allegation, stressing that delayed reporting and continued contact did not establish consent.

Separately, Syed was acquitted in May 2022 of two charges involving alleged unnatural intercourse and molestation of another woman, relating to an alleged incident in October 2020.