Malaysia’s former PM Muhyiddin Yassin says graft charges are trumped up and an ‘ill-intentioned ploy’
- Muhyiddin, who was PM from 2020 to 2021, will be charged on Friday over allegations of abuse in stimulus programmes during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Muhyiddin’s top lieutenant Hamzah Zainudin said the veteran politician was the subject of ‘political persecution’
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said in a statement that the former prime minister faces “several charges” for abuse of power to solicit bribes and complicity in money laundering.
The agency said the attorney-general’s chambers approved its request for the 75-year-old to be charged at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Friday.
If found guilty for abuse of power, he faces up to 20 years in jail and a fine of five times the value of the bribe, while charges for money laundering carry a penalty of up to 5 million ringgit (US$1.1 million) in fines, no more than five years in jail or both.
Speaking to the media after emerging from the MACC headquarters in the evening, Muhyiddin said he had been told that he will face seven separate charges linked to a multibillion dollar government spending packaging during the Covid-19 pandemic and the approval of tax breaks for charitable contributions by billionaire businessman Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.
“I had no power as prime minister to grant approval. That power lay with the finance ministry. In no way did I influence the finance ministry in making its decisions,” Muhyiddin said.
