Khalid sues The Malaysian Insider over alleged defamatory articles

KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is suing The Malaysian Insider (TMI) editors and its owners for allegedly implying that he misused his position as Selangor Mentri Besar for personal gain.

TMI chief executive officer and editor K. A. Jahabar Sadiq K. A. Abdul Kader, its Malay news editor Amin Shah Iskandar, its owners The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd and TMIDOTCOM Sdn Bhd have been named as defendants.

In his suit, Khalid claims that Jahabar had on July 24 written or caused the publication of a defamatory statement in its English commentary.

He claims that Amin Shah had written or caused the publication of a defamatory Malay commentary on the same day.

Khalid said the words used suggested that he is of bad character, untrustworthy and not fit to hold the position of Selangor Mentri Besar.

Khalid said that TMI had also published a series of commentaries between June 9 and July 24 allegedly exposing his misconduct.

He said his reputation as Selangor Mentri Besar, Port Klang assemblyman, Bandar Tun Razak MP as well as a politician and former corporate figure had been tarnished by the articles.

He is claiming to have suffered humiliation as well as mental and emotional distress.

In the statement of claim, made available to the media on Tuesday, Khalid said that his solicitors had sent a letter to the defendants to give them an opportunity to apologise over and retract the defamatory statements.

Khalid is applying for a permanent injunction against the defendants to restrain them from publishing similar words or commentaries against him.

He is also seeking an order compelling the defendants to publish a public retraction over the alleged defamatory articles and an apology.

In addition, he wants the defendants to immediately remove the said defamatory articles from the news portal.