Former Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was charged on Friday with abuse of energy and cash laundering over tasks launched below his premiership, accusations that he stated had been politically motivated.
The fees come simply three months after Muhyiddin misplaced a carefully fought and divisive normal election to Anwar Ibrahim, and are prone to enhance political tensions in Malaysia.
Muhyuddin, who led the nation for 17 months between 2020 and 2021, turns into the second Malaysian chief to be charged with crimes after dropping energy.
At a Kuala Lumpur periods courtroom, the previous premier was charged with 4 counts of abuse of energy involving 232.5 million ringgit (US$51.40 million), and two counts of cash laundering involving 195 million ringgit (US$43.1 million).
Muhyiddin pleaded not responsible to all six fees and has beforehand stated the costs had been “political persecution” of the opposition.
The former premier faces as much as 15 years in jail if discovered responsible on the cash laundering cost, and as much as 20 years for the abuse of energy cost.
He will even be topic to a heavy monetary penalty.
Muhyiddin was granted bail by the choose and requested to give up his passport.
Prime Minister Anwar stated he has not interfered in graft investigations involving Muhyiddin and left it to legislation enforcement businesses.
Immediately after the election win in November, Anwar stated he would launch a evaluate of presidency tasks value billions of {dollars} authorised by Muhyiddin, together with COVID-19 reduction packages, alleging they didn’t observe correct procedures.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Ed Davies)
