PUTRAJAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has complained that he is being treated like a common criminal for voicing his own opinion.

The former prime minister said he was a law abiding citizen who merely spoke his mind.

"Over the last few years, I have had my statements recorded by police at least ten times.

"Once you become a Tun, you will be investigated.

"There are many who are not Tuns but who are doing wrong, some of them are even mentioned in the Pandora Papers but no action is being taken," he told reporters at the Yayasan Kepimpinan Perdana here on Tuesday (Jan 23).

He questioned if he was allowed to speak at all.

"Our country is supposed to have freedom of speech. This is my opinion. Others make even more racist statements but it was okay. But when I say something, it cannot be accepted," he said while adding that he was informed 18 people had lodged reports over his recent interview with an Indian TV channel.

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Dr Mahathir said during his session with investigators on Tuesday, he was asked a total of 19 questions.

"There were some questions that I answered while others I simply responded that I would answer in court.

"They (police) even showed me a 30-minute clip of my interview and asked me if I could see anything wrong with my statement but I answered them that I saw nothing wrong with it," he said.

Recently, Dr Mahathir has been embroiled in a war of words with several leaders for claiming that the Indian community is not completely loyal to Malaysia as they are still tied to their country of origin, in an exclusive interview with Thanthi TV.