Orphans' foundation threatens 2nd lawsuit against PM's pol-sec

Orphans' foundation Pemangkin has threatened to file another lawsuit against prime minister's political secretary Shahlan Ismail and state agency Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia (Yapeim) director Abibullah Samsudin over "confusing" statements made against the foundation's founders.

Pemangkin founders last week filed a defamation suit against Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom, Yapeim and six others over alleged mismanagement of the Pemangkin funds.

Shahlan and Abibullah are also named in the lawsuit.

In a statement today, Pemangkin co-founder Mohd Yusoff A Bakar said Shahlan and Abibullah have 48 hours to retract their statements regarding a lawsuit pending against Pemangkin's founders.

Mohd Yusoff also named social media users - Zamzuri Mohamed Tahir and Aznil Hashim - as also having 48 hours to retract alleged defamatory statements.

"Their statements suggests that Pemangkin's founders are guilty of criminal breach of trust and had malicious intent," he said.

He also cautioned social media users that Pemangkin will not hesitate to take legal action against defamatory statements made online.

Mohd Yusoff said the four made statements regarding a lawsuit filed by Shahlan seeking a freeze in assets.

However, the lawsuit was filed by Shahlan, who is now no longer part of the board of trustees, Mohd Yusoff said.

He said the court had ruled against Pemangkin in their injunction application against the asset freeze on Feb 17 but the decision is pending appeal.

Jamil Khir to received sealed document soon

Meanwhile, Mohd Yusoff said the defamation suit Jamil Khir, Shahlan, Yapeim and the other defendants will be served once court releases the sealed document.

In the RM20 mil lawsuit, Mohd Yusoff and fellow founder Ahmad Fazli Hashim claimed Yapeim had used Pemangkin's funds to sponsor certain irregular programmes involving Jamil Khir in Europe, United States and Yapeim's programmes in Australia.

The suit also named former members Mohd Yusof Abd Rahman, Mokhtar Abd Razak, Yapeim's director of legal, quality and administration Sharina Ramli, former company secretary Normala Embi as defendants.

The plaintiffs claimed Yapeim and the other defendants acted in concert to make Pemangkin dormant and to wind it up secretly without informing and discussing it with founding members.

The ulterior motive, they claimed, was to allegedly cover up all weaknesses, wrongdoings and mismanagement by certain defendants as had been reported by the media on Pemangkin.

It was reported last year that the National Oversight Whistleblowers (NOW) had claimed that Jamil had gone golfing and shopping with Pemangkin's funds, which are meant for orphans and the poor.

As a result of NOW's claim, Jamil filed a suit against the NGO's director Akmal Nasir, but it was struck out by the High Court.- Mkini