A lawyer for Bersatu has asked the police how Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s gut feeling that his plane was sabotaged on Friday can be classified as fake news.

Rafique Rashid Ali told Malaysiakini that again, as happened in other cases, the person who raised the alarm is made the victim.

"Like in the case of Khairuddin Abu Hassan who had lodged reports with the police to investigate 1MDB and was then arrested under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 - the person who suspects sabotage is now being investigated.

"The police are missing a rudimentary point, Mahathir was merely stating his suspicion. Instead of investigating all avenues, it is labelled as per the Anti-Fake News Act. Here is the test - if Tun suspects sabotage, how can his feeling be fake?" he asked.

Yesterday it was reported that the police are probing allegations that the former premier had committed fake news for claiming that his chartered plane was sabotaged.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim said it was one of eight police reports lodged so far during the 11-day campaign period for the 14th general election. Polling is on next Wednesday.

"For the case on the fake news, it involves a claim by Mahathir that the jet which he had chartered to fly to Langkawi was sabotaged last Friday," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Act abused

According to Rafique, the Anti-Fake News Act passed last month is being abused to silence critics.

"It is being used to clamp down on anything deemed loosely against the government of the day. I guess that is why it was rushed at the tail end of the last parliamentary seating, just in the nick of time for the election campaign," he said.

Last Friday, Mahathir who was to depart from Subang airport for Langkawi, could not do so after the aircraft he chartered encountered tyre problems.

He later travelled on another aircraft after seeking help from a friend.

Upon arriving in Langkawi, Mahathir claimed the aircraft was sabotaged to thwart his candidacy in the parliamentary constituency the following day.

On Saturday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia said its investigation found a technical fault with the aircraft's left-hand nose wheel, which was losing air pressure but denied the aircraft was sabotaged.

Despite this, Mahathir insisted it was sabotaged.