• 2022-02-21 11:39 AM

PETALING JAYA: Former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (pix) said he was prepared to take a “sumpah laknat” to refute Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s claim that the Umno president had visited him with piles of court files to get him cleared of ongoing criminal court cases.

“I had never visited Muhyiddin when he was the prime minister to ask his help to have my court cases dropped.

“What more bringing files and asking his (Muhyiddin) help to interfere in the judiciary system.

“I am prepared to take a sumpah laknat to deny Muhyiddin’s ill allegations against me.

“I want to ask if he is prepared to do the same. Take the sumpah laknat to back up his allegation against me,“ he said on Facebook.

Sumpah laknat literally means “curse swear”, and is an oath a Muslim makes to God, asking for divine retribution in the form of a curse against the other party if the latter is lying.

It is also not officially recognised in Malaysia’s Shariah laws, which are administered separately by each state.

Last week, during a ceramah in Tangkak, Muhyiddin claimed that Zahid had visited his home with piles of files.

He said Zahid had allegedly pleaded with him to help in his corruption cases.

Muhyiddin, who was the prime minister from March 2020 to August last year, said he declined to heed Zahid’s requests as he did not want to interfere in the judiciary as a matter of principle.

In a televised speech just days before he resigned as the prime minister, Muhyiddin claimed he was under pressure from “certain parties” to intervene in matters of the court in order to set several individuals free of criminal charges.