FORMER youth and sports minister Mokhtar Hashim, who was pardoned for murder in 1983, died in the early hours of today.

He was 78.

His family announced the death of the former Tampin MP on social media.

Mokhtar was convicted and sentenced to hang in 1982 for the murder of the then Negri Sembilan speaker Mohamad Taha Talib.

The two were reported to be engaged in a power struggle in Umno.

Mokhtar’s death sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment but he was released in 1991 after receiving a royal pardon. – November 18, 2020.