{"id":12993,"date":"2022-01-13T10:02:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T02:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=12993"},"modified":"2022-01-13T10:02:39","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T02:02:39","slug":"macc-chief-files-rm10-million-defamation-lawsuit-against-accuser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=12993","title":{"rendered":"MACC chief files RM10 million defamation lawsuit against accuser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kuala Lumpur, January 13 &#8212; Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki has filed an RM10 million defamation lawsuit against an activist and is seeking a public apology over the publication of articles regarding the purchase of company shares last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuit was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court against Lalitha Kunaratnam following her lack of response to a\u00a0letter of demand\u00a0issued on Jan 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cInstead of responding to our client\u2019s letter of demand issued on Jan 6, she has through her lawyer issued a press statement published on her Twitter account, wherein she has claimed to stand by her publication and republication, the contents of which our client strenuously maintains are defamatory.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cOur client is therefore constrained to file this lawsuit before the expiry of 14 days from the date of the letter of demand to protect his good name, reputation, and professional standing,\u201d<\/em> Azam&#8217;s lawyer said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1.jpg\" alt=\"lawsuit\" class=\"wp-image-12994\" width=\"502\" height=\"313\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1-160x100.jpg 160w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1-350x219.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Azam had come under fire from Pakatan Harapan politicians over articles published in December last year in which Lalitha, who is linked to local NGO C4 Center, claimed conflict of interest in the ownership of company shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His letter of demand last week came as MACC lodged a police report against her, describing her claims as false and unsubstantiated by evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He is seeking through the lawsuit an injunction against Lalitha and\/or her family members or agents preventing her from making, publishing, or causing to be published the statements in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He is also seeking a court order for her to take down the statements and articles within three days of the date of judgment, and a public apology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/\">NMT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kuala Lumpur, January 13 &#8212; Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki has filed an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1.jpg",800,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1-300x188.jpg",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1-768x480.jpg",640,400,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1.jpg",640,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1.jpg",800,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1.jpg",800,500,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1.jpg",800,500,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1.jpg",800,500,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/azam-baki-bernama-021020-1.jpg",720,450,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=524\" rel=\"category\">Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12995,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12993\/revisions\/12995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}