Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim obtained a court greenlight to compel his alleged former research assistant Muhammad Yusoff Rawther to reveal WhatsApp messages between them.
The High Court in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon allowed defendant Anwar’s discovery bid to strengthen his defence in a sexual assault lawsuit against him by plaintiff Yusoff.
Yusoff is suing PKR president Anwar over the alleged incident at the PKR president’s home in Bukit Segambut in 2018.
The crux of Harapan chairperson Anwar’s statement of defence is that the sexual misconduct allegation against him by Yusoff is ”false and fabricated”, and was politically motivated to tarnish the Tambun MP’s political image and prevent him from becoming the prime minister then.
During the online proceedings this afternoon, judicial commissioner John Lee Kien How @ Mohammad Johan Lee ordered Yusoff to pay RM1,000 in costs to Anwar.
Lee said that the discovery application has merit as the message documents sought are necessary for the defendant’s case against the civil action.
“Order in terms with costs,” the judicial commissioner told counsel Navpreet Singh and Mahajoth Singh, who are acting for Anwar and Yusoff respectively.
Lee then fixed April 13 for further case management of the civil suit.
Incidentally, the Court of Appeal has previously set April 7 to hear Yusoff’s appeal to remove certain portions of Anwar’s statement of defence. The High Court previously denied the plaintiff’s application to expunge parts of Anwar’s defence.
Yusoff claimed to have once been Anwar’s research assistant, while the latter disputed this and contended that Yusoff was a junior volunteer at a PKR office at Jalan Gasing in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
According to a copy of the discovery application, Anwar seeks for Yusoff to produce “copies of all WhatsApp conversations between the plaintiff (Yusoff) and defendant (Anwar) from Sept 2, 2018, to June 5, 2019”.
Among other documents that the PKR president seeks are copies of Yusoff’s statutory declaration (SD) dated Nov 19, 2019, as well as a police report dated Dec 7 the same year.
The SD contains the sexual assault allegations, while the police report is on an alleged incident where Anwar’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak purportedly assaulted Yusoff on May 16, 2019.
Anwar is also seeking copies of all alleged medical reports of injuries and medical treatment allegedly sought by Yusoff, following the purported assault.
Yusoff revealed the SD at a press conference on Dec 4, 2019.
The media briefing was held just a day before the PKR annual national delegates’ congress in Malacca.
Yusoff: Legal move a ‘fishing expedition’
In an affidavit in reply to Anwar’s discovery application, Yusoff claimed the legal move was a “fishing expedition” and “an attempt to delay the trial of the main suit”.
Yusoff contended the documents sought are well within Anwar’s knowledge and that most are available in the public domain.
He claimed the WhatsApp conversations are between him and Anwar, therefore they should already have been in the latter’s own possession.
Yusoff contended that his SD is easily available via a “simple Google search”, and that Anwar was allegedly already well aware of the document’s contents as Anwar's private secretary purportedly lodged a police report over the SD back on Nov 5, 2019.
He contended that the documents sought are not relevant nor necessary for the fair disposal of the main legal action. - Mkini
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