PETALING JAYA: Rasyiq Mohd Alwi is planning to file a RM500 million countersuit against health minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who sued the preacher earlier over online postings linked to the Covid-19 vaccination programmes.
Khairy had also filed a suit against former Umno Supreme Council member Lokman Noor Adam over similar postings.
Rasyiq announced his decision to file the countersuit in an Instagram post today, with the message: “Saman menteri-menteri ‘sedap sikit’ sebab poket mereka ‘berkepok’ (It feels good to sue ministers since they have deep pockets).”
In the same Instagram post, Rasyiq posted a picture of a child with the caption: “Anak adalah anugerah Ilahi, bukan bahan ujikaji (Children are God’s gift, not subjects for experiments).”
In a separate Instagram post, he also apologised to Khairy and said he would remove online and video postings about the minister, with a message: “Jangan ‘sembah vaksin’ usah pertuhankan WHO (Don’t ‘worship’ the vaccine and deify the World Health Organization).”
Earlier today, FMT reported that the health minister filed two separate suits in the High Court through Messrs Rashid Zulkifli last week naming Lokman and Rasyiq, better known as Ustaz Abu Syafiq, as defendants.
In his statement of claim, Khairy said he filed the suit in his personal capacity against Lokman for defaming him through two videos, uploading a photograph on his (Lokman’s) Facebook page on Jan 6 and making two “live” statements via Facebook and YouTube on Jan 10.
He claimed that Rasyiq had defamed him by making four statements and publishing three videos and a picture via his Instagram account between Oct 20 and Jan 10.
He is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and wants the defendants to remove the alleged defamatory postings. He also wants the two to publish a retraction and public apology on their YouTube pages and other social media accounts identified by him.
Khairy, who is also the Covid-19 immunisation task force chairman, said the defendants committed defamation through the online postings which contained several allegations linked to the government’s Covid-19 vaccination efforts in Malaysia.
Among them were that he acted recklessly and irresponsibly in the procurement of vaccines for the vaccination programmes, as well as made false claims over his vaccination status.
Khairy said the online postings by the defendants were against public interest as they undermined Putrajaya’s efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. - FMT
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