KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 5): Senior lawyer Rosli Dahlan, who is also the lead counsel for 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), has filed a RM50 million defamation suit against former Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Lokman Noor Adam for issuing defamatory statements which implied, among others, that Rosli had unlawfully profited from money in connection with the 1MDB asset recovery effort by the Malaysian government.
Today, following an application made by Rosli, the High Court granted an interim injunction order to compel Lokman to stop publishing the defamatory posts on the latter's Facebook page with reference to the plaintiff.
Previously, Rosli had sent a letter of demand to Lokman for a RM10 million compensation for the alleged defamatory posts. Following that, Lokman was understood to have deleted the video entitled "BERITA SENSASI, BENARKAH RUSLI DAHLAN ORANG KANAN MUHYIDIN YANG PALING BANYAK DUIT SEKARANG? PEGUAM NEGARA PERLU MEMBERI PENJELASAN".
However, Rosli claimed that Lokman had failed to remove a second video entitled "HISHAMMUDDIN TIDAK YAKIN MAMPU MENANG JAWATAN PRESIDEN UMNO, ARAH ORANG KANAN BELIAU GESA MEREKA YANG DIDAKWA TARIK DIRI DARI BERTANDING", which had repeated the libel. As such, Rosli is claiming RM50 million as aggravated and exemplary damages.
In the alleged defamatory posts, Lokman accused Rosli of receiving 10% amounting to RM1.7 billion in legal fees from the RM17 billion Goldman Sachs settlement in the 1MDB case. Lokman also alleged that Rosli then used the huge fees that he earned to give a RM500 million kickback to Bersatu. Rosli had denied all the allegations.
C4 Center takes down alleged defamatory posts against Rosli
Meanwhile, anti-corruption watchdog Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Center) has taken down alleged defamatory posts against Rosli, he told theedgemarkets.com.
Representing C4 Center, Datuk Gurdial Singh Nijar had informed Rosli's lawyers that the watchdog had no intention to defame Rosli and sought a meeting to discuss his demands, which C4 Center will accede to.
On March 30, Rosli in a letter of demand demanded RM10 million as compensation from C4 Center over alleged defamatory posts against him on Twitter and Facebook.
Rosli claimed that the posts by C4 Center on March 25 contain plainly false, untrue, unwarranted, unsubstantiated, malicious and mischievous statements against him.
Besides the RM10 million compensation, the lawyer is also demanding C4 Centre to provide an unequivocal public apology to be published prominently and immediately on its website, Facebook page and Twitter account, and to have all news portals which had posted the allegedly defamatory materials to also post the same apology with the same prominence.