Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has conceded that his defamation lawsuit against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was a tit-for-tat move after the latter sued the former for defamation.
Mahathir was referring to why he sued Zahid for defamation over an allegation of an identity card bearing the name “Mahathir anak lelaki Iskandar Kutty”.
Zahid is suing Mahathir, 99, over a claim that he tried to lobby Mahathir, who was premier at the time, in 2018 to drop criminal charges.
Zahid filed his suit against Mahathir in April 2022, while the nonagenarian sued the Umno president in July.
During the trial before the Kuala Lumpur High Court today, Mahathir made the admission while being cross-examined by Zahid’s counsel Shahrul Fazli Kamarulzaman.
Shahrul Fazli: You sued Zahid as he sued you first in April (2022)?
Mahathir: That is one of the reasons. What he said was a lie, he dented my reputation.
Shahrul grilled Mahathir on why the veteran politician waited five years to sue Zahid over the Bagan Datuk MP’s statement, which was made in 2017.
Objection
At this juncture, Mahathir's lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali objected to the line of cross-examination, pointing out that civil law gives a plaintiff up to six years from the date of an impugned statement.
Hearing before judicial commissioner Gan Techiong resumes this afternoon.
In his statement of defence, Zahid denied that the Kutty-related remark was malicious, slanderous, or harmed Mahathir’s public reputation.
Zahid claimed the name on the IC referred to an individual based on an old copy of an identity document.
The 71-year-old also claimed he had no control over subsequent videos published on media platforms which referred to his statement.
‘Any idiot understands Zahid referred to me’
During today’s civil court proceedings, Mahathir testified that any “idiot” would understand that Zahid’s speech was referring to the former prime minister.
He claimed this was because Zahid’s statement contained an implication that the ex-prime minister exploited the Malays for political and personal gain.
The plaintiff claimed that the 2017 statement was politically driven as Zahid was from Umno while he was then Bersatu chairperson.
“He (Zahid) was the deputy prime minister then. When he makes a statement like that, people would believe him,” Mahathir said.
When Shahrul asked why Mahathir did not file the suit immediately after Zahid made the statement, the plaintiff claimed it was because he was preoccupied with being prime minister for the second time between May 2018 and February 2020.
Mahathir also claimed that not only did Zahid’s statement cause him to lose the race for the Langkawi parliamentary seat in the 15th general election (GE15) in late 2022, but it also affected Bersatu’s electoral victories in GE14 in May 2018.
He claimed this caused Bersatu - which aligned with Pakatan Harapan against Umno and PAS in GE14 - to only win 13 seats out of the 52 it contested. - Mkini
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