SHAH ALAM: Former economy minister Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli will proceed with his lawsuit against rapper and influencer Caprice after the latter ignored several days given to him to apologise.
The Pandan MP said that content uploaded by Caprice accused him of having an interest in his company, Invoke Solutions Sdn Bhd, reported Sinar Harian.
"According to the law, questions posed in the form of accusations or sarcasm are not grounds that can protect you from being sued for defamation."
"Because of the legal concepts of innuendo and insinuation, asking a question—even if it is a trick question—or presenting something in the form of a question can still be defamatory."
"That is the element that the court will consider in this defamation case," he said during the Yang Berhenti Menteri (YBM) #36 podcast with moderator Haziq Azfar Ishak on Friday (Nov 20).
Earlier, Caprice, whose real name is Ariz Ramli, had demanded that Rafizi remove all allegedly defamatory posts on social media by 5pm on Saturday (Nov 21), failing which legal action would be taken.
This came after a post on Rafizi's social media page responding to Caprice's allegations about a corruption case totalling RM2.5bil involving the award of a contract to a company linked to him.
Commenting further, Rafizi said that all the documents, including the 2019 Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) search that Caprice allegedly presented as evidence, gave him strong grounds to win the suit.
He explained that the documents did not show any element that could suggest he had a conflict of interest.
"The element that needs to be examined is the alleged corruption itself, namely the existence of givers and recipients of money as well as elements of interference."
"If it were true that I received money, I would have been in jail a long time ago, but that has not happened. I am sure the Bukit Aman Anti-Money Laundering Criminal Investigation Team (AMLA), the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Bank Negara monitor me every day," he said.
The former PKR deputy president said that businessmen associated with him are clients who seek his company's expertise.
"When Caprice says he has shares in Invoke, that can actually be grounds for a lawsuit because 'preference shares' are not ordinary shares, but are instead a form of loan."
"To describe this as an equity interest is misleading, because in essence, they are clients. Invoke has many other clients as well; all of these relationships are documented in contracts that can be examined," he said.
Rafizi also believes that the entire episode is an attempt to divert attention from issues he has raised regarding Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki.
"This is actually a tactic to reduce the time and energy spent on Azam Baki's case. But they underestimate me; I have plenty of 'fat' to burn to stay focused on it," he said.
