Ahmad Maslan, charged with corruption, claimed that the lack of political funding laws made him a victim of the charges.

During a forum event, Political Funding Act: Importance and Challenges, on Friday (Sept 10), he shared his opinion on how he was the subject of criminal action for allegedly accepting bribes relating to the 1MDB scandal.

The incident was related to compounds handed to him as well to 79 others for receiving the funds.

The UMNO Secretary-General accepted the funds believing it was the usual political funding from the Malay party and deflects any idea of the source of the money.

He added, “Recently, the Court of Appeal made an important decision declaring the seizure of money from several individuals as invalid as they did not know the source (of the money) and did not suspect that the money was not clean.”

The Pontian Member of Parliament had brought up his concerns to the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission that the compounds handed were hefty, calming that it was 50 times the amount received.

“The reason the others and I became victims was because there was no political funding act. If there had been a provision barring foreign political donations, for example, then it would have been clear that we could not receive (the money). But there wasn’t,” he said.

Ahmad Maslan, the nominee for Deputy Speaker in Parliament, is charged with money laundering charges for not declaring taxes on RM 2 million accepted from Najib Tun Razak.

He was fined RM 5 million by MACC in October 2019.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE