DAP and the party’s former assistant secretary-general Khoo Poay Tiong have unreservedly apologised to former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik to settle a defamation suit.
Kuala Lumpur High Court judicial commissioner John Lee Kien How @ Mohd Johan Lee recorded the consent judgment for the settlement of Rahim’s (above) civil action.
When met after open-court proceedings this morning, Rahim’s counsel Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin confirmed the outcome of the matter. Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh appeared for Khoo and DAP.
According to copies of the consent judgment, both Khoo and DAP accepted that the allegations contained in several articles are “baseless and untrue”, expressing regret over the publication.
Khoo and the party “unreservedly apologise” and that they have removed the articles as well as undertake not to publish the articles or any further similar allegations.
Rahim in return undertook to withdraw the civil suit against Khoo and DAP with no liberty to file afresh.
As part of the consent judgment, plaintiff Rahim was also awarded RM180,000 in costs.
On Sept 17, 2020, Rahim filed a suit against Khoo and the party for allegedly defaming him in articles that linked him to various scandals.
Besides Malacca DAP vice-chairperson Khoo, the plaintiff also named party office bearers: its then national chairperson Tan Kok Wai, current deputy chairperson Gobind Singh Deo, and its present chairperson Lim Guan Eng as defendants.
In his statement of claim, Rahim alleged that on Dec 16, 2018, Khoo, who is also Kota Melaka MP, had written, published, and/or caused several articles to be published, with defamatory words linking him to various scandals, on his Facebook page, the DAP website, and an online news portal.
The plaintiff also alleged that Tan, Gobind, and Lim had published and/or caused the articles to be published on the party’s website until they can be accessed and shared in blogs, forums, and portals without limitations.
Rahim alleged that the published words described him as, among others, a corrupt individual, involved in sexual crimes, abuse of power, and malpractice, which he said were untrue, baseless, and published with malicious intent.
According to the plaintiff who resigned as chief minister in October 1994, the allegations and insinuations have benefited the first defendant as a politician but at the same time caused maximum damage to the plaintiff’s reputation.
Rahim claimed that although he had, via his lawyer, demanded Khoo retract the article and apologise in a letter dated Feb 18, 2019, the first defendant refused to do so and even challenged him to file the suit.
However, Rahim contended that the English daily The Star had published a statement on July 27, 2019, titled “Sorry, Rahim Tamby Chik is not father of scandals” to apologise to him over the article. - Mkini
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