The Court of Appeal has set April 7 to hear Muhammad Yusoff Rawther’s appeal to remove parts of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s statement of defence against a sexual misconduct lawsuit.
The hearing is in relation to the former research assistant’s ongoing civil action against Anwar over the Pakatan Harapan chairperson’s alleged sexual misconduct against the appellant.
Anwar’s lawyer Navpreet Singh confirmed that the Court of Appeal fixed the hearing date during case management yesterday.
“The hearing of the appeal is fixed on April 7 via zoom,” the lawyer told Malaysiakini today.
Yusoff’s (above) appeal is against the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision on Sept 9 last year, which dismissed the plaintiff’s application to strike out certain parts of Tambun MP Anwar’s statement of defence against the civil action.
In the PKR president’s statement of defence, Anwar dismissed the sexual misconduct allegations as “utterly false and fabricated”.
In July 2021 before the Kuala Lumpur High Court, Yusoff filed a civil action, claiming that he was the victim of sexual misconduct by Anwar in October 2018.
The PKR veteran contended that Yusoff was never employed as a research assistant at the former’s office at Bukit Gasing, but rather that the latter had joined as a junior volunteer/intern involved in administrative work.
In Anwar’s counterclaim against Yusoff, he stated that the latter concocted the allegations to “tarnish Anwar's political image and to ensure that Anwar did not become prime minister”.
Yusoff, who claimed he used to be Anwar's research assistant, came into the limelight in 2019 when he alleged he was physically assaulted at Anwar’s office and claimed at a press conference on Dec 3 the same year that he was also sexually assaulted.
During the media briefing making this allegation, Yusoff relied on a statutory declaration dated Nov 19, 2019.
He filed the lawsuit after the Attorney-General’s Chambers announced on Jan 14, 2020, that it would not be charging Anwar over the allegations due to a lack of evidence. - Mkini
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