KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s trial over corruption charges involving RM225.3 million and money laundering charges involving RM200 million started today at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, three years after he was charged in relation to his administration’s Jana Wibawa project.

In Muhyiddin’s trial, the prosecution in its opening statement today acknowledged that the millions of ringgit in this case “did not enter his own pockets”.

But the prosecution said these funds had allegedly entered the account of Muhyiddin’s “associate”, namely his political party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.

The prosecution said this allegedly took place when Muhyiddin was Bersatu president and when he was the prime minister then with an indirect interest in the Jana Wibawa project.

“Evidence will show that if not for the accused being the Bersatu president and also the prime minister of Malaysia at the same time then, the Bersatu party would not get millions in ringgit in contributions,” deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said when reading out the prosecution's opening statement.

The prosecution said it would show the finance minister then had only acted based on Muhyiddin’s minutes and the finance minister did not receive any profits from that action, and that the finance minister’s associate, namely Umno, also did not obtain any gain.

Wan Shaharudin said the Court of Appeal had previously decided that Bersatu is an organisation under the MACC Act's Section 3 and that the power abuse charges against Muhyiddin were not defective.

Wan Shaharuddin said the prosecution will rely on documentary evidence, direct evidence and circumstantial evidence to prove its case, adding that it would call around 30 prosecution witnesses to testify.

Bersatu president Muhyiddin, wearing a brown jacket, was seen entering the courtroom at 8.43am along with some of his supporters.

In this trial, Muhyiddin is facing four abuse of power charges under Section 23(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009, which were allegedly committed during the March 2020 to August 2021 period.

The four charges alleged that Muhyiddin used his position as Malaysia’s then prime minister and as Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president to obtain bribes totalling RM225.3 million from three companies and one individual (Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, Nepturis Sdn Bhd, Mamfor Sdn Bhd and Azman Yusoff) for his “associate”, namely his party Bersatu.

Muhyiddin is also facing three money-laundering charges, where he is alleged to have received illegal proceeds amounting to RM120 million and RM75 million that were deposited into Bersatu’s CIMB account during the February 2021 and July 2022 period, and also alleged of receiving RM5 million in illegal proceeds that were deposited into Bersatu’s AmBank account.

All seven charges were read out again to Muhyiddin today, including the amended fourth power abuse charge where the alleged bribe amount was changed from RM12 million to RM4.8 million.

Muhyiddin pleaded not guilty to all seven charges.

Before Wan Shaharuddin could read the prosecution’s opening statement, Muhyiddin’s defence lawyer Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik had raised objections to all seven charges against his client, claiming that these charges were “bad in law”.

Among other things, Hisyam said the charges did not specify how Muhyiddin allegedly committed abuse of power, and said this would affect Muhyiddin’s defence and result in “prejudice and unfairness” to him.

Hisyam also objected to the money laundering charges which he said did not comply with Section 87(1) of Malaysia’s anti-money laundering law.

Hisyam said the lack of full particulars in the charges would impact his client’s defence, and highlighted the defence’s February 20, 2026 letter to the prosecution to complain about the allegedly vague charges and to ask if the seven charges were against Muhyiddin or Bersatu.

But Hisyam said Muhyiddin’s legal team is prepared to proceed with trial, but also left it to the prosecution to amend the seven charges to provide more details in the charges before the trial goes on.

Wan Shaharuddin said the trial should go on first and that Muhyiddin could still raise his objections at the end of the prosecution’s case, adding that the prosecution believes the charges are “perfect” and would not be amending them.

High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin then decided to proceed with the trial first, noting that it is the public prosecutor who has the power to amend charges and the prosecution could amend the charges later on if it felt a need to do so.

The trial then proceeded with the first prosecution witness Mohd Syawaludin Said taking the stand to testify.

Bersatu vice-presidents Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu and Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin who are carrying out the duties of the Bersatu deputy president, and Bersatu secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali were among those who were present in the courtroom today to show support for Muhyiddin.