KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today again insisted that he faced politically-motivated prosecution after the Barisan Nasional coalition lost in the 14th general election (GE14) in May 2018.
Zahid, who was testifying in his own defence in his corruption trial here, told the court that a complaint to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) were quickly lodged against him after the then BN government failed to obtain sufficient seats to form government in GE14.
Following the change of government where the then opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) took over, Ahmad Zahid claimed that leaders from his BN coalition were charged while PH politicians were released from criminal cases.
"A few politicians who were formerly in the opposition and then when... PH took over, there were 15 people who were in court and facing charges, all 15 of them had their charges withdrawn, while we who lost, we were charged.
"I wish to state that among those who had their charges withdrawn include YB Sivarasa, YB Lim Guan Eng, YB Hassan Karim, Rafizi Ramli, and a few other persons — as I recall 15 people. While the party who lost, besides me, Datuk Seri Najib, Umno's secretary-general itself YB Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, Umno treasurer YB Tengku Adnan and around 18 more leaders from my party were also brought to court. And there were more than 81 division leaders that were also forced to be hauled to and charged in court who allegedly obtained funds from an organisation under the administration of the former prime minister," he claimed in the High Court today.
"Yang Arif, if this is not political prosecution, I don't know what other term can be used, because those who were charged had their charges withdrawn by the attorney-general then, while those from the defeated party were hauled to court to be charged," he added.
"So these examples, I consider, and the public perception also considers this to be political prosecution or selective prosecution," he claimed.
Ahmad Zahid then spoke of his trust in the court being just and that justice is a correct legal system, but then suggested that the legal system should not be used to take revenge.
Ahmad Zahid noted that the MACC report lodged against him was done following GE14 "after BN's defeat and when we became the opposition".
Ahmad Zahid also claimed that there was a trial carried out in the court of public opinion when referring to his 47 charges in this trial alone.
In this case, Ahmad Zahid is facing 47 charges, namely 12 of them for criminal breach of trust in relation to more than RM31 million of charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds, 27 counts of money laundering, and eight counts of bribery charges over RM21.25 million of alleged bribes.
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