Rais sues another blogger over rape claims

Rais had denied the allegations in February. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 — Datuk Seri Rais Yatim has sued a second blogger for alleging that he raped his former maid.

The information, communications and culture minister filed a statement of claim on February 10 against Abdul Mutalib Mohamed Daud over four articles posted in the Sabahkini website.

Rais said Abdul Mutalib had published or caused to be published the articles on January 1, 3, 5 and 7 that featured the Umno leader’s photograph and false words which were malicious and implied he was of unchaste behaviour and loose morals.

In his suit, Rais said the defamatory words portrayed him as a person capable of getting former prime minister Tun Abdullah Badawi to be involved in covering up a rape case.

He is also seeking an injunction compelling the defendant to remove the defamatory articles of him from the blog and damages deemed fit by the court.

High Court judge Amelia Tee Hong Geok Abdullah set May 6 for case management after meeting Rais’s lawyer, Norhani Nordin, in chambers.

Previously, a blogger sued by the minister over an alleged defamatory article agreed not to further publish an allegedly libellous article on the matter.

On March 21, the High Court here also granted the inter-parte injunction to restrain Amizudin Ahmat from publishing the same allegation in his blog at sharpshooterblogger.blogspot.com until the disposal of Rais’s suit against him.

The Jelebu MP denied the rape allegations in February after a blogger named him.

Subsequently, a woman, who worked as a maid for him for eight years, denied in an Indonesian news portal that she had ever been mistreated or raped by her then-employer.