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KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The High Court here has allowed a request from the Vice Minister II of Penang, Dr. P. Ramasamy (Photo) to amend his defense statements in a lawsuit brought against him by controversial Muslim preacher Dr. Zakir Naik.
Zakir filed the lawsuit in October last year alleging that Ramasamy had made defamatory statements against him and linked him to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) issue.
Judge Datuk Mohd Firuz Jaffril agreed to Ramasamy’s request after Zakir’s lawyer, Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader, informed the court that the plaintiff did not object.
In handling the case prior to this, which was set on July 21, the defendant’s attorney had expressed the intention to modify the defense brief.
“We (the plaintiff) have studied the part to be amended and we agree,” he added.
Then, the court set October 13 for another handling of the case.
On October 16, 2019, Zakir filed a lawsuit against Ramasamy for allegedly issuing defamatory statements, which were uploaded to social media sites and news portals between 2016 and 2019.
In the statement of the lawsuit, the plaintiff claimed that on April 10, 2016, Ramasamy had defamed him by calling him (Zakir) using an unpleasant name on the defendant’s Facebook page and the defendant also again issued a defamatory statement against the plaintiff on October 1st. , 2017, where an article about the preacher was published on the Free Malaysia Today (FMT) news portal on the same day.
Zakir also claimed that on August 11, 2019, the defendant had manipulated his speech during an event organized by the Kelantan government and this was also posted on the FMT portal on the same day.
It is alleged that Ramasamy, on August 20, 2019, issued a defamatory statement against the plaintiff, published by India today from that country.
Zakir claimed that these statements had described him as a malicious individual and is a threat to the peace and harmony of the country.
He is seeking a permanent injunction to prevent the defendant from publishing, distributing and uploading any defamatory statement against him by any means, as well as general, compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages, attorney and client costs, and any other relief than the court deems appropriate.
Zakir filed another lawsuit against Ramasamy in December 2019 over the latter’s comments posted by online news portal The Malaysian Insight regarding the LTTE issues.
The court set five days from March 22 next year to hear both lawsuits, which will be heard together. – Bernama
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