DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang on Tuesday said he will contest a RM10-million defamation suit filed against him over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
Lim said in a statement that he has instructed his lawyer Ramkarpal Singh to accept service of the RM10 million plus defamation suit filed by former Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.
“I will contest Apandi’s suit, but it is a matter of relief that Malaysians now will have the opportunity to get answers why Apandi had been totally inactive as Malaysian Attorney-General after the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) filed its largest kleptocratic forfeiture suit over the 1MDB scandal.
“There was only thunderous silence from Apandi at the time. Now, we can get the answers in the courts,” Lim said.
Lim explained that he managed to respond only on Tuesday as he was not able to receive Apandi’s state of claim.
Apandi, who was A-G from July 2015 to June 2018, said that Lim had written and published a libellous article on Malaysiakini on May 6.
Entitled ‘Dangerous fallacy to think Malaysia’s on the road to integrity’, Apandi claimed that Lim wrote the article that meant his involvement and support of the 1MDB scandal; that he was a person with no morals and integrity; and was unethical and had abused his power when he was A-G.
Apandi told The Malaysian Insight on Monday that Lim “gave the wrong perception” of him to the country.
“His article is defamatory and I have sued him for slander,” he was quoted as saying.
In his statement, Lim cited three events which took place the past week following the charges filed, that has raised doubts over the latter’s action as the A-G.
Among them, Lim cited a Bloomberg report that Hollywood producer Joey McFarland’s surrendered several gifts from Riza Aziz, which were allegedly bought using the stolen 1MDB funds.
Lim also said that Yayasan Rahah, a charitable organisation named after Najib’s mother Rahah Mohammad Noah, sought a settlement with the Malaysian government after it was named among 41 recipients of funds from Najib that were allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.
He also highlighted the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) decision to investigate Germany’s Deutsche Bank over its involvement in the 1MDB scandal.
“All these three episodes in the past five days raise a common question, why was Apandi inactive on the 1MDB scandal when he was Attorney-General?” Lim asked.
Lim said Apandi failed to respond adequately when the DoJ first filed its forfeiture suit of 1MDB-linked assets in July 2016 and a further expanded suit in June 2017.
Earlier report: July 15, Apandi Sues Kit Siang for RM10M over 1MDB Remarks