A flight attendant has leapt to the defence of Mohamad Sabu, after a Facebook user accused the defence minister and his family of using a government helicopter to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri in Perlis.

She said the allegation was baseless, as many took pictures with Mohamad and his wife before he boarded a commercial flight on the day. 

“Poor abang Mat (Mohamad) and his wife, there is always some slander created by people.

“Many people took photos with him at the time,” she told Malaysiakini.

According to a source, Mohamad boarded the commercial flight MH1148 from Kuala Lumpur to Penang on the first day of Hari Raya.

Among those who posed for photographs with the minister were the flight’s captain and crew.

Mohamad himself issued a denial yesterday, saying that he neither used the government helicopter nor was in Perlis.

"Not true at all. I will not use government assets for myself, and I was not even in Perlis. Everything is fake and a lie,” he said on Twitter.

A 27-second video clip uploaded onto Facebook yesterday had purported to show Mohamad and his family using the helicopter to celebrate Hari Raya in Jejawi.

The clip, recorded from a distance, only shows a helicopter taking off from a field. Neither its passengers nor its pilot can be made out.