Former Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who currently leads the main opposition coalition, has been charged with sedition for allegedly insulting the country’s previous king.

Muhyiddin appeared in court in the northeastern town of Gua Musang on Tuesday morning where he pleaded not guilty.

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The charges relate to comments he made on August 14 while campaigning in a state election for his conservative Perikatan Nasional alliance.

He could face as long as three years in prison if found guilty.

According to Malaysian media outlets, Muhyiddin questioned why then-King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah did not invite him to be prime minister following the elections in November 2022.

The reports said Muhyiddin told the crowd that he was the political leader who had the necessary support from lawmakers to form a government.

The king asked Anwar Ibrahim to become prime minister following the hard-fought campaign.

Malaysia has a unique rotational monarchy where the sultans from each of the nine states in the peninsula take turns to be the country’s king for a five-year period.

The monarchy plays a largely ceremonial role but is held in deep respect by the ethnic Malays, who make up more than half the population. It has also taken a more prominent role since May 2018 when the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition lost power for the first time since independence.

Sultan Abdullah has not commented on the case. But his son issued a strong rebuke to Muhyiddin, saying his remarks were dangerous and could divide the people and cause them to lose faith in the royal institution.

Muhyiddin has denied insulting the royalty, saying that his remarks were factual.

Al-Sultan Abdullah, who is from the central state of Pahang, was replaced in January by Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar from the southern state of Johor.