48 Hours had past, Maria takes Jamal to court

Barely after the 48-hour deadline expired for Jamal Yunos to apologise and retract his statement, Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah filed a defamation suit against the Red Shirts leader.

In the suit filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today she said, Jamal’s statements had put her in national odium and contempt.

The suit was filed on her behalf  by lawyers N Surendran and Melissa Sasidaran, as Chin is presently away in Kedah launching a Bersih event.

Chin said the statements were completely false, malicious and calculated to injure her reputation in the eyes of the public.

“His statements have confused the public and caused uneasiness among them,” she said in the court papers filed by the legal firm Daim & Gamany.

Chin said Jamal knew his inflammatory statements would be widely published by the media.




The coalition of electoral reform group leader is also seeking an unspecified amount of damages and other relief deemed fit by the court.

On Tuesday, she sent a letter of demand (LoD) , asking Jamal to apologise over his claim that the electoral watchdog has been infiltrated by terrorist group Islamic State (IS).

However, an adamant Jamal said he would not apologise to her and then proceeded to tear up the LoD and flush it down the toilet.

Stressing that he stood by his sources’ claims, the Red Shirts movement leader also promised that the movement would keep “attacking” the electoral reform group, perhaps more aggressively.

On Sept 28, Jamal, claimed that Bersih 2.0 had planned to “take over” several strategic locations (during the Bersih 5 rally on Nov 19), such as airports, like what happened during protests in Thailand.

On Oct 4, Jamal was said to have uttered defamatory words against Chin by implying that her movement was influenced by IS and Daesh elements when he made a report at the Bukit Aman Federal police headquarters.

Bersih 2.0 last week started its convoy simultaneously in Kota Bharu, Lumut, Arau, Johor Bahru, Sandakan and Miri in the run-up to its gathering in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 19.

Source -FMT-