KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has lodged a police report over a viral message that had claimed of discussions in a recent Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia supreme council meeting of alleged intentions to introduce harsher criminal charges against him.
At Zahid’s ongoing corruption and money-laundering trial this morning, his lead defence lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik brought to the High Court’s attention of a message that had gone viral over the weekend.
Teh said Zahid’s lawyers were concerned over one of the items listed in the viral message, reading out in court the line which the viral message had claimed to be from a Bersatu supreme council meeting, including allegations that there would be harsher charges in Zahid’s court case in order to be used for negotiations, and allegations that the supreme council wanted Zahid to be sentenced before June to ensure Umno would be together with Bersatu in the general elections.
However, Teh also noted that the message has since been labelled by Bersatu’s secretary-general as false.
“We were reassured by the secretary-general of Bersatu, who said that all the eight items listed as decisions from the meeting are false and that the party will lodge a police report regarding the spread of the false news and trace the source.
“The defence has also lodged a report on this and want the authorities to investigate on the veracity of the allegations,” Teh told the court.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairi then stood up to state for the record that the issue regarding the viral message is just a “political issue”, and that the prosecution merely wants to finish its case.
Teh later clarified to Malay Mail that the police report was lodged by one of the lawyers in Zahid’s defence team.
Today is the 49th day of Zahid’s trial where he is facing 47 charges. More than 95 prosecution witnesses have so far testified in this case, with several more investigating officers expected to testify as prosecution witnesses.
On March 6, Bersatu secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin denied the message spread through WhatsApp and Facebook regarding the purported contents of the political party’s March 4 supreme council meeting.
Hamzah had said that the entire viral message was untrue and had no relation to any Bersatu supreme council meetings that had been held, and had said that Bersatu would lodge a police report to track down the mastermind behind the spread of such “fake news”.
Hamzah is believed to have been referring to a message which purported to list down matters from the Bersatu supreme council’s March 4 meeting, with the message purporting to be from Bersatu’s headquarters and allegedly addressed to the party’s division leaders.
On March 4, Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was reported to have chaired a two-hour-long meeting by the party’s supreme council at a Putrajaya hotel to discuss the party’s cooperation with its current ally Umno in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration.
National news agency Bernama had said the meeting was held following Zahid’s letter dated February 26, which stated the Umno supreme council’s decision to not cooperate with Bersatu in the 15th general election and that Umno would remain within the PN government until the dissolution of Parliament.
After the Bersatu supreme council meeting on March 4, Hamzah had on the same day issued a statement regarding the meeting, saying among other things that Bersatu viewed Zahid’s February 26 letter’s content seriously as it has huge implications towards future cooperation between Umno, Bersatu and PN.
“In this matter, Bersatu has decided to keep focusing on developing the cooperation with allies in Perikatan Nasional, which are PAS, STAR, SAPP and Gerakan, based on a struggle that is sincere and honest for the people in order to win the coming general election,” he had said then.
