Muhyiddin’s corruption trial opens with a fight over TikTok in Malaysia

Former Malaysian prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s corruption trial opened in Kuala Lumpur on Monday with a courtroom fight over the admissibility of TikTok videos, which prosecutors hope will link millions of ringgit in illicit funds to his Bersatu party. Among the most keenly observed cases involving Malaysia’s political elite in years, the proceedings come three years after Muhyiddin was first charged in connection with projects under his administration’s Covid-19 recovery efforts. Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) assistant enforcement officer Mohd Syawaludin Said was the prosecution’s opening witness. He told the High Court that he had downloaded two TikTok videos, allegedly featuring Muhyiddin’s voice discussing the case, after stumbling upon them while scrolling on his phone on January 16, 2025, and July 26, 2025. In a clip played to the court, a voice said to be Muhyiddin’s declared: “Not a single cent went into my pocket. It went to the party.” One video, uploaded by TikTok user “puterishantek”, overlaid purported audio of Muhyiddin on a graphic alleging PAS was distancing itself from Perikatan Nasional. The other, from “wanhadi21”, juxtaposed clips of speeches in which he denied receiving funds. Syawaludin said he recognised the voice from Muhyiddin’s time as Malaysia’s eighth prime minister. However, under cross-examination by defence counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad, he admitted he had not verified the accounts, traced caption origins, checked hashtags or geolocation, or contacted the users behind the posts. Amer challenged the use of potentially edited footage, citing past public remarks attributed to MACC chief Azam Baki that doctored audio or video could not count as evidence. Pressed on whether he could rule out AI generation without further checks, the witness replied: “I cannot.” “Why use TikTok videos as evidence?” Amer asked the court. “Is this the standard of our prosecution?” Justice Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin ruled the videos could be marked as exhibits for now, with the prosecution required to prove their authenticity. Salim Bashir, former president of the Malaysian Bar, explained that such challenges to visual evidence were routine, given the ease of manipulation. He added that judges were “bestowed with an authority and responsibility to act as gatekeeper in trials” regarding relevance and admissibility. Pandemic funds on trial Muhyiddin, 78, faces four counts of abusing his position to obtain bribes totalling 232.5 million ringgit (US$58.6 million) for Bersatu, plus three money-laundering counts involving 200 million in party accounts. The alleged abuses are said to have occurred at the prime minister’s office in Putrajaya from March 2020 to August 2021, while the laundering allegedly spanned from February 2021 to July 2022. The trial is scheduled to run for 29 days, ending in August, with some 30 witnesses set to testify. It centres on the Jana Wibawa programme, which was launched to expedite projects and aid bumiputra (indigenous Malay) contractors amid pandemic lockdowns. Prosecutors allege bribes from such projects flowed to Bersatu, of which Muhyiddin was president during his turbulent 17-month tenure as the country’s prime minister – the shortest of any Malaysian leader. He assumed office on March 1, 2020, following the dramatic toppling of the reformist coalition that won the 2018 election, only to resign in August 2021 upon losing his parliamentary majority amid a spiralling health crisis. A High Court judge threw out the abuse-of-power charges in 2023 for lack of detail, but the Court of Appeal reinstated them in February 2024. Muhyiddin denies wrongdoing, calling the case politically driven – a claim that has been dismissed by current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government. The trial is unfolding against the backdrop of an opposition Perikatan Nasional coalition that has been weakened by infighting. Muhyiddin stepped down as its chairman on January 1 amid the internal strife, while Bersatu sacked deputy president Hamzah Zainudin, who retains his parliamentary opposition leadership, in February. James Chin, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania, said a guilty verdict would effectively end Muhyiddin’s political career. “The trial is about him misspending and corruption related to the Covid money,” Chin said. “People are taking it very, very seriously.”

Muhyiddin’s corruption trial opens with a fight over TikTok in Malaysia

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A former PM, a landmark corruption case – and the prosecution’s opening evidence is a pair of TikTok videos the defence says cannot stand

A former PM, a landmark corruption case – and the prosecution’s opening evidence is a pair of TikTok videos the defence says cannot stand