Alor Setar MP Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden said DAP leaders and members should “stay strong” in this “tough time”, saying he knows they have to come to terms with the Zahid decision for the sake of the unity government.

“In the past, you tried everything to get Zahid thrown into prison. Today, you are with him in Putrajaya.

“If Zahid’s party withdraws support for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the government will start to crumble. So some parties have to make sacrifices and be sacrificed for the sake of ‘unity’.

“We understand just how difficult it will be (for DAP leaders) to explain this to their supporters. We sympathise with you,” he said in a Facebook post.

Earlier today, Zahid was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on 47 charges involving corruption, criminal breach of trust and money laundering in the Yayasan Akalbudi case.

The conditional discharge allows the prosecution to resume the case against Zahid or bring a new case in the future based on similar facts and evidence from the present case.

In delivering the decision, Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission was still investigating the case after Zahid made representations to the Attorney-General’s Chambers .

He also said the decision to grant a discharge was in view of a royal commission of inquiry being formed to look into claims by former attorney-general Tommy Thomas about selective prosecution.

Zahid had been standing trial on charges of money laundering and criminal breach of trust involving millions from Yayasan Akalbudi, and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as home minister.

On April 10 this year, the prosecution said Zahid’s lawyers had sent representations to the AGC, which was looking into the matter, while MACC was also conducting further investigations after a second round of representations, running into 200 pages, had been made.