Lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla today said it was surprising that Anwar Ibrahim had decided not to sue his client, Muhammed Yusoff Rawther, over the latter’s claim of sexual assault when the PKR president and his lawyer had been adamant to do so.
Haniff said the decision made by Anwar’s lawyer Ramkarpal Singh was also “contradictory” with earlier statements that implied Anwar was going to sue Yusoff for slander despite knowing that the solicitor-general (SG) was not pursuing a police complaint on the matter.
Today, Ramkarpal said Anwar would not be suing his former research assistant as the SG had already decided not to act on the latter’s complaint due to “contradiction of material facts” in the case.
The lawyer said that Anwar had initially instructed him to file a defamation suit against Yusoff but he had advised his client that it was unnecessary to do so as the Solicitor General had cleared his “good name”.
Ramkarpal said apart from clearing his name, the PKR president had no interest in monetary compensation, which may be awarded as a result of the said proposed defamation suit.
“As such, there is no longer any purpose in filing the said proposed defamation suit which would take a considerable amount of time and involve unnecessary costs,” Ramkarpal said.
Ramkarpal added that he advised Anwar not to pursue the suit in view of a separate suit filed by Anwar’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak last Friday against Yusoff.
Haniff said Ramkarpal’s statement today contradicted what he had said on Jan 17 when he insisted that Anwar would file a suit “next week”.
“But until now we have not received any notice of the suit, contrary to what was said earlier. I think anyone can tell that this is a contradictory statement. It is very weird and contradictory.
“We were all told that Anwar would maintain the action on my client as his allegations were supposedly frivolous and scurrilous. I have also requested them not to retract their suit.
“I will discuss with my client accordingly on this latest development,” he told FMT.
Yusoff had lodged a police report against Anwar, resulting in a probe under Section 354 of the Penal Code, which deals with using criminal force to outrage a person’s modesty.
The Port Dickson MP has rejected the allegations.
Meanwhile, Yusoff said he welcomes the defamation suit filed by Perak PKR chief Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.
Farhash had reportedly sought an injunction to stop Yusoff from repeating claims implying that the political secretary to Anwar was a violent person.
Yusoff said, however, that, according to his lawyer, he had not received any legal notice of the suit yet.
Yusoff was speaking in response to reports claiming that Farhash had on Friday (Jan 24) filed a writ of summons through legal firm Messrs Kumar Thangaraj & Co at the Kuala Lumpur High Court registry in relation to alleged defamatory remarks made by Yusoff during a press conference on Dec 4 last year.
Yusoff had claimed that Anwar had outraged his modesty on Oct 2,2018, and that Farhash had assaulted him in May last year.
Yusoff was then employed as Anwar’s aide.
Farhash was seeking an injunction to stop Yusoff from repeating his claims.
A defiant Yusoff, calling Farhash “a flunkey to Anwar Ibrahim”, said it was an attempt at diverting public attention.
Yusoff has also filed a suit against Anwar’s press secretary Tunku Nashrul Tunku Abaidah over several media statements he made on the incident.