A woman has denied being the wife of Abdul Latiff Ahmad, a former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, in relation to Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli’s allegations linked to the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal.
Zainab Mohd Salleh has issued a letter of demand, dated yesterday, seeking Rafizi’s (above) apology within 14 days.
She claimed that Rafizi published six defamatory statements between Aug 22 and Nov 1 last year on his blog as well as in his TikTok account.
Zainab rubbished as untrue the statements, which she claimed implied her to be Latiff’s second wife and that she acted as a proxy for him in relation to the defence contract linked to the LCS project.
She claimed the PKR deputy president had made the statements with a political motive due to the then-coming 15th general election (GE15) and that he never tried to contact her before making the allegation.
Through a 14-day ultimatum issued by her lawyers from Yusfarizal Azid & Zaid, she demanded that Rafizi makes an apology to be carried by newspapers and online media, make a written undertaking to prevent him from further making any defamatory statements and propose an appropriate compensation.
On Aug 22 last year, in his hunt for so-called “big sharks” involved in the LCS scandal, Rafizi claimed that Latiff was involved in it through two offshore companies allegedly controlled by Zainab.
"Firstly these companies were appointed as technical consultants (when they do not have expertise) for the project.
"They sent invoices for work not carried out. A total of RM23.7 million was swindled from the LCS project in its early stages of execution from 2011 to 2014," Rafizi claimed.
"Secondly, Alizes Marine was also appointed as a spare parts supplier for the LCS project.
"The appointment was based on false information that the company purportedly possessed a licence from the French government to be a global exporter of defence spare parts (when in actual fact it does not have a licence).
"The LCS project paid around RM210 million for spare parts supposedly supplied by a French (licensed) company but the payment was actually misappropriated to 'fake' companies set up in Malta and Labuan," he further claimed.
Rafizi said information on the companies' offshore status and Zainab was first leaked by whistleblowers involved in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers projects.
He also claimed that the purported connection between Latiff and Zainab was recorded in internal probe papers on the LCS scandal.
However, Latiff in an immediate response, said Zainab is not his wife.
Malaysiakini is attempting to contact Rafizi’s legal team for a response on this matter. - Mkini
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