Malaysia’s ex-PM Muhyiddin acquitted of 4 charges in US$49 million corruption case

Malaysia’s former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin won a significant court victory on Tuesday after he was acquitted of four charges linked to a government programme set up to help contractors during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court cleared Muhyiddin of three money-laundering charges and one of abuse of power involving 200 million ringgit (US$49.1 million), after prosecutors said they no longer wanted to pursue those counts in his Jana Wibawa trial.

The ruling removes four of the seven charges against Muhyiddin, although he still faces three abuse-of-power counts, keeping him among several of the country’s former prime ministers caught up in criminal proceedings.

High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin ordered Muhyiddin’s full acquittal after rejecting the prosecution’s request for a discharge not amounting to an acquittal, which would have allowed the charges to be revived later.