KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim filed a lawsuit against Kuala Terengganu MP Datuk Ahmad Amzad Hashim for allegedly issuing defamatory statements that the prime minister lied about receiving a salary of RM1 when he was Selangor’s economic adviser.

Anwar, 75, as the plaintiff filed the suit through S.N. Nair & Partners in the Kuala Terengganu High Court by naming Ahmad Amzad as the sole defendant.

Lawyer Datuk SN Nair, who represented Anwar when contacted by Bernama said the suit was filed at 3.59pm this afternoon.

In the statement of claim, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman claimed that on December 7, the defendant had made several statements to a group of customers while dining at a restaurant.

The PKR president claimed that the statement was republished on TikTok under the name @nelly3868 on the same day (December 7) and received more than 4,980 views, 62 comments, 116 "like” buttons, 18 "favourite” buttons and 50 shares, and is accessible up to now.

Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said the slanderous statement was quoted and published by Malaysiakini, the next day (December 8) through an article titled "S’gor economic adviser job: Anwar seeks public apology from MP”.

The plaintiff’s claim, the slanderous statement among other things implies that he (Anwar) is untrustworthy and dishonest about receiving millions of ringgit from the Selangor state government as an economic adviser, deceiving the public by stating that he received a salary of RM1 as an economic adviser as well as committing a criminal offence and betraying the people’s mandate.

Anwar claimed that the slanderous statement was false, malicious and disparaging to him, who has a highly respected image nationally and internationally because he is against corruption.

He denounced all the allegations against him regarding the receipt of a salary of RM15 million and the allegations of past crimes that were made were politically motivated.

"The defendant’s allegations in the defamatory statement are unfounded by portraying me as an ex-convict, even though a Royal Pardon has been granted,” he alleged in the statement of claim.

According to Anwar, in uttering the slanderous words, the defendant was clearly deliberate and malicious when he ignored the official answer of the former mentri besar of Selangor, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim during the Selangor State Legislative Assembly meeting on March 27, 2012, which stated that Anwar’s salary as Selangor state economic adviser is only a symbolic sum of RM1.

The plaintiff said that on December 8, the lawyer from his law firm submitted a demand notice for the defendant to withdraw, apologise, promise not to repeat the statement and pay damages to the plaintiff, but the defendant did not respond to the demand.

The plaintiff therefore seeks general and compensatory damages as well as aggravated and exemplary damages in addition to seeking an injunction to restrain the defendant from further publishing or distributing similar defamatory statements. — Bernama