Lim Guan Eng sues Muhyiddin over Yayasan Albukhary's tax exemption issue

KUALA LUMPUR: Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng today filed a lawsuit against former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for allegedly issuing defamatory statements over the cancellation of the tax exemption on Yayasan Albukhary.

Lim, 62, filed the defamation suit through Messrs Guok Partnership at the High Court here and named Muhyiddin, 75, who is the Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman as the sole defendant.

In the statement of claim, the former Finance Minister stated that Muhyiddin had issued three defamatory statements involving him over the issue on March 9, 11 and 12, posted on the defendant's Facebook, which were published on the same day by several newspapers and news portals.

According to Lim, the remarks were deliberately made after Muhyiddin was detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on March 9 because he knew that all the media and press attention was focused on him.

The DAP chairman claimed that the slanderous comments gave the impression that he was racist, anti-Malay and anti-Islam and deliberately sabotaged Yayasan Albukhary for refusing to allow tax exemptions for the foundation when he was Finance Minister from 2018 to 2020.

The former Penang Chief Minister also claimed that the defamatory statements also meant that he had abused his position and power by authorising or instructing the Inland Revenue Board to impose taxes and penalties on charitable foundations when they should not be taxed.

Lim demanded that the defendant apologise and retract all the statements and post the apology on his Facebook and Twitter accounts and publish it in several newspapers and news portals within seven days of the judgment date.

He is also seeking general, aggravated and punitive damages to be determined by the court and an injunction to prevent Muhyiddin or his agents from issuing or republishing the statements or similar remarks.

-- BERNAMA