Anwar to sue Utusan, senator for 'bisexual' claim

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim plans to take legal action against the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia and senator S Nallakaruppan for its front page report today alleging that he is a bisexual and unfit to lead the opposition.

Party vice-president N Surendran (left) said the allegations attributed to S Nallakaruppan are completely false, politically motivated and the worst kind of gutter journalism.

“Prime minister and Umno president Najib Razak is fully responsible for this vile attack made by the Umno-ownedUtusan Malaysiaupon Anwar.

“Instead of agreeing to Anwar’s challenge for a public debate on policies and the economy, Najib has resorted to the lowest kind of character assasination through Utusan Malaysia.

“Utusan’s intolerance and lack of scruples reveals the true face of Umno and Najib, and makes nonsense to his show of moderation and reform,” said Surendran in a statement.

Today, Utusan in a front page report quoted Nallakaruppan (right) of making such claims and even alleged he had seen the opposition leader engage in such acts with both women and men.

Surendran said Utusan seems to engage in dishonest, unbalanced and unfair news reporting on political matters and this is quite usual among the BN-controlled print and electronic media.

“However, the Umno-owned Utusan’s continuous descent into lies, deceit and vicious political and race baiting has no parallel in the history of Malaysian journalism,” claimed the PKR vice-president who is also a lawyer.
 
Hence, Surendran said, Anwar has commenced legal proceedings through his solicitors today, and demands publisher Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd and its editor to retract the reports and allegations and issue an apology.

Failing to do so would result in the opposition leader seeking RM100 million in damages through a lawsuit.

A similar notice has been sent to Nallakarupan, he said, adding that Anwar will take legal action to ensure fair and honest media reporting on matters relating to public interest.