KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 3): Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin (pictured) has initiated a defamation suit against Umno supreme council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam and Islamic preacher Mohd Rasyiq Alwi over postings on social media.

In documents sighted by theedgemarkets.com, Khairy filed the writ of summons on Jan 25.

Lokman and Rasyiq, also known as Ustaz Abu Syafiq, are being sued for a series of posts on their respective social media channels between Oct 20 last year, and Jan 10 this year.

Both men had allegedly claimed that Khairy, through the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force, had acted recklessly and/or irresponsibly in the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines for the inoculation programmes in Malaysia, as well as claims linked to his Covid-19 vaccination status.

Khairy said the pair had committed defamation with their postings. Four videos and a photo were allegedly uploaded to Lokman’s Facebook page and YouTube channel, as well as four postings, three videos and a photo purportedly uploaded to Rasyiq’s Instagram page.

The Health Minister said the postings undermined government efforts to combat the Covid-19 crisis.

“The nature of the defendants’ defamatory publications is clearly designed to undermine the efforts by the plaintiff, the efforts of everyone in the Health Ministry and the government in the existing battle against Covid-19.

“The defamatory publications have harmed societal response to Covid-19, and the defamatory publications have undermined the official data and facts provided by the Health Ministry to the public,” claimed Khairy in the suit.

The defamation suit was filed by his lawyers from law firm Rashid Zulkifli, after the pair had failed to abide by a letter of demand sent to them on Jan 16 this year.

The letter asked Lokman and Rasyiq to remove the postings from their social media and to agree not to repeat similar postings and allegations in the future.

Khairy is seeking damages and a public apology as well as an undertaking that the pair take down the postings.

The matter is fixed for case management on Feb 28 by the High Court.