Khairy sues Lokman Adam and preacher over Covid-19 vaccine posts

KUALA LUMPUR: Khairy Jamaluddin is suing former Umno supreme council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam and preacher Mohd Rasyiq Mohd Alwi, better known as Ustaz Abu Syafiq, for defamation over social media posts on Covid-19 vaccination.

The Health Minister, 46, named Lokman, 49, dan Mohd Rasyiq, 41, as defendants in two separate writs of summons filed through Messrs Rashid Zulkifli last week on Jan 25.

The case was brought up for case management here on Thursday (Feb 3).

According to his statement of claim, the Rembau MP said Lokman had uploaded two videos on the Facebook page "Lokman Noor Adam Official" and posted a photo accompanied with a caption on Jan 6.

He said Lokman had also conducted a Facebook Live Video session and YouTube live stream on Jan 10, where the same content was uploaded on both platforms.

Meanwhile, in his statement of claim against Mohd Rasyiq, Khairy said the defendant had posted a video on the Instagram account "Ustaz Abu Syafiq" on Oct 20.

Mohd Rasyiq also uploaded two posts and a video on Instagram on Jan 6 and two posts, a photo with a caption and a video on the same Instagram page on Jan 10.

Khairy claimed that all the impugned posts by Lokman and Mohd Rasyiq were plainly false, untrue, unwarranted, unsubstantiated, malicious and mischievous statements against him.

The alleged defamatory publications, Khairy said, were meant to say that he had lied and deceived the public by dishonestly claiming to have been vaccinated against Covid-19 and to have received the third booster dose, and that he had faked the information regarding his vaccination and third dose status, and that he lied and deceived the public in respect of the requirements of a third dose for the umrah.

In respect to Lokman's alleged defamatory statements against him, Khairy claimed Lokman's publications were meant to say that he was engaged in corrupt practice and abuse of power in relation to the procurement of the Covid-19 vaccines in Malaysia.

He further claimed that the defamatory publications had gone viral since they were posted and have been disseminated and circulated among the public.

This, he claimed, seriously injured his integrity, credit, goodwill, reputation and caused him distress as well as eroded the trust and confidence of the public in his personal and professional capacity.

He claimed the publications had caused him to be brought into public scandal, odium, contempt and disrepute.

Khairy is seeking general, exemplary and aggravated damages and interests.

He is also seeking an order for the defendants to be compelled to remove the publications.

A check on the court's e-filing system showed that the case has been fixed for an inter-parte hearing on injunction on Feb 17.