The tussle between former Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy and Islamic preacher Zakir Naik has taken another turn after Ramasamy lodged a police report and issued a letter of demand (LOD) over a video clip posted on social media.
According to Ramasamy's legal representative Shamsher Singh Thind, his client made a report at the Bukit Mertajam Police Station in Penang this morning against Zakir after he had referred to Ramasamy as the "biggest enemy of Islam", during a lecture in Sokoto, Nigeria.
The clip, which lasted about eight minutes, was uploaded on Nov 4 on the controversial preacher’s Facebook with the caption "Dr Zakir Naik donates US$320,000 towards Palestine cause”.
"Till now, the excerpt has been viewed more than 171,000 times, and shared by more than 7,000 Facebook users worldwide, attracting about 30,000 reactions and about 2,000 comments," Shamser said.
Starting at the six-minute mark in the video, Zakir alludes to a number of legal suits that he had filed against Malaysian politicians, saying that most were settled out of court.
"But the biggest enemy of Islam, who I call, I did not forgive him. I said we let the court case go on. The court case went on for two years, and this morning was the verdict, and the judge told Ramasamy, who at that time was the deputy chief minister of Penang, to pay a fine of (sic) RM1.52 million to Zakir as compensation," the preacher said.
‘Baseless’ accusation
Shamser claimed that the accusations were "extremely serious and totally baseless".
"The police report was made to request an investigation for offences such as criminal defamation, misuse of multimedia, and so on.
"We have also sent a defamation claim notice to Zakir's residential address in Putrajaya, among other things, asking him to withdraw the accusation in its entirety, apologise unconditionally in writing to our client, delete the video clip and promise not to repeat the accusation, all within 14 days," the lawyer added.
He said that should Zakir fail to meet the demands, he has been instructed to file a writ of summons in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur without further notice.
The two men have been at loggerheads and last Thursday a civil court ruled in Zakir's favour over five public statements made by Ramasamy, ordering the latter to pay a total of RM1.45 million in defamation damages to Zakir and another RM70,000 for costs.
Judge Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz directed Ramasamy to pay the damages, quantum and costs within 30 days and ordered him to make a public apology to Zakir.
Zakir announced plans to donate the proceeds to the Palestinian cause, while Ramasamy's supporters announced a crowdfunding campaign to help him raise funds to make the payments.
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