Muhyiddin's acquittal shows charges were attempt to tarnish Bersatu, says Azmin

PETALING JAYA: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin being acquitted of all his power abuse charges proves that there were hands that tried to tarnish Bersatu's image so that people would reject Perikatan Nasional, says Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

The Perikatan information chief said the party had insisted from the beginning that if the government had adhered to the principle of the rule of law, Muhyiddin, who is Bersatu president, would not have been charged in court.

"The party is confident that the president has never been involved in the abuse of power and is a person who opposes corrupt practices including 1MDB until he was fired as then deputy prime minister.

"Today's success proves that there are hands that tried to tarnish the image of Bersatu, especially Muhyiddin, so that the people will reject Perikatan.

"But what happened in the 15th state election is the opposite," said Azmin when contacted on Tuesday (Aug 15).

Perikatan had won 146 seats out of 246 contested, including making a clean sweep of Terengganu's 32 state assembly seats in the Aug 12 six state polls.

Earlier Tuesday (Aug 12), the High Court in Kuala Lumpur discharged and acquitted former prime minister Muhyiddin of four charges involving abuse of power to obtain a RM232.5mil gratification for Bersatu.

Justice Muhammad Jamil Hussin made the order to discharge and acquit the Bersatu president after the court was satisfied that all four charges were defective, baseless and vague.

Muhammad Jamil said the charges did not show any details on the offence, causing the accused to be unable to give proper instructions to his team of lawyers.

With that, Mohamed Azmin said all the political charges against Muhyiddin have fallen after the court ruled that there was an abuse of court process and granted him full release and freedom.