ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is suing Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Muhyiddin Yassin over the latter’s allegation that Anwar was paid MYR15 million while he was the economic adviser to Selangor.
The writ of summons was filed by Messrs SN Nair and Partners at the High Court registry yesterday.
In the statement of claim, Anwar said Muhyiddin made those claims during an election speech at Taman Selasih in Kulim, Kedah on December 5, in support of PN candidate Azman Nasrudin.
Excerpts of the speech were then republished on the TikTok platform via an account under the name “@beritakini8”.
The video garnered more than 1.1 million views, 6,061 comments, more than 21,400 likes, more than 1,360 favourites and 2,169 shares as of December 7.
Anwar said the defendant then republished his entire speech on his Facebook account under the name “Muhyiddin Yassin”, which remains accessible.
Anwar said the slanderous words were meant to portray he was unreliable and untruthful about accepting millions from the Selangor state government as the economic adviser, that he was unethical, unprincipled, a corrupt, a hypocrite and not a good Muslim.
He is seeking general, compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages.
Anwar is also seeking an injunction to restrain Muhyiddin from repeating the words.
Through his lawyers, Anwar had previously sent Muhyiddin a letter of demand on December 7 for an apology and retraction of the allegations.
