See you in court, migrant activist tells recruitment firm boss suing him

 

Andy Hall said he welcomed the opportunity to defend his claim in court.

GEORGE TOWN: Migrant rights activist Andy Hall vowed today to fight a RM30 million suit brought against him by a recruitment firm director.

Hall was recently served a lawyer’s letter demanding that he apologise to Embun Karisma Resources director R Muthusamy over a bribery allegation.

“I welcome the opportunity to defend this claim in court. No doubt, the claimant thought he could use these proceedings to force me to be quiet.

“In fact, they have given me a platform to be even louder. The use of libel proceedings to stop drawing the attention of official representatives to these despicable practices is an abuse of the Malaysian legal system,” he told FMT.

Hall said he had engaged the Bar Council, the UK High Commission and human rights lawyers networks in Malaysia to represent him.

He said the Malaysian lawyers would complement the work of a British legal team that had already been set up.

According to the letter of demand, Hall had sent the defamatory email on Jan 6 to no less than 40 people, accusing Muthusamy of “bribing” him with a consultancy offer at ATA IMS Bhd.

In the email, Hall also claimed that Muthusamy had asked around on “how much it would cost to pay off or silence Andy Hall”.

Muthusamy’s lawyer, GK Sritharan, said the statements were false and without merit.

“They (statements) are defamation per se in that they depict our client as engaging in, among other things, illegal and criminal activities. This has damaged our client’s reputation locally and overseas,” he said.

In the letter of demand, Hall was further ordered to cease publishing any defamatory statements about Muthusamy and write a written apology to his client.

Hall was given up to Feb 28 or else legal proceedings would commence. - FMT