The Umno Youth chief says being charged does not amount to being found guilty.
Citing former Tabung Haji chairman Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim’s abuse of power charge, Akmal said this does not mean that the former Baling MP was guilty.
“Just because he has been charged, does that mean he is already guilty? What do we have to be ashamed of?
“Our leaders have not been convicted. Give your moral support to our leaders,” he said in his winding-up speech at the Umno Youth general assembly here.
Besides Azeez, a former minister believed to be from Umno is set to be charged with dishonest misappropriation of property on Monday.
Other Umno leaders who have faced charges and have been convicted include former prime minister Najib Razak, who is serving his prison sentence for the SRC International case and has been sentenced to 15 more years in prison for the 1MDB case.
Akmal compared Umno’s defence of its leaders with the support that Anwar Ibrahim received when the PKR president was imprisoned previously.
“They were never ashamed. They even marched on the streets to call for Anwar’s release. Were they ashamed? No,” he said.
Akmal also defended Najib’s second application for a royal pardon in his SRC case, pointing out that Umno had never questioned the king’s decision to grant Anwar a pardon in 2018.
He maintained that granting pardons was the king’s prerogative and warned against challenging the king’s authority.
Akmal said Umno Youth would hold a rally if any person or organisation questions the king’s powers. “This is Umno Youth’s promise: we will gather and fight them all the way,” he added.
Earlier today, federal territories minister Hannah Yeoh confirmed that the Federal Territories Pardons Board will meet tomorrow morning.
This came after sources told FMT that Najib’s pardon application was expected to be among the matters to be raised at the meeting. - FMT
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