KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration will never convict the six Umno MPs being charged in court for corruption because he needs the numbers to remain in power.

In a Facebook status update, the Langkawi MP said that the six Umno lawmakers are Pekan MP Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Bagan Datuk MP Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Putrajaya MP Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor, Baling MP Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, Pontian MP Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan and Kinabatangan MP Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin.

"Right now, the number of MPs supporting Muhyiddin is only 114, just three more than half (111) of the total MPs.

"If these six are found guilty by the court, they are no longer MPs. Therefore, Muhyiddin’s supporters will drop to 108 — which is less than half.

"So Muhyiddin’s administration will fall. That’s the reason why Muhyiddin will decide that these six MPs will not be found guilty,” Dr Mahathir predicted.

He added that the government had already seen Najib’s stepson, Riza Shahriz Abdul Aziz, who was one of the main actors in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal saga, escaping justice after the prosecution, under the leadership of Attorney General Tan Sri Idrus Harun dropped the case.

The same had applied to former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman, who had the 46 corruption charges laid out against him being dropped by the prosecution on Tuesday.