Najib orders legal action over defamatory report by two Australian dailies

Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has ordered legal action to be taken against Australian dailies, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, over an article entitled “Bribery scandal linked to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak”, published on July 14.

A statement by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) published on its Facebook page today dismissed the baseless allegation which was seen as a desperate attempt to link Najib’s work during his tenure as the Deputy Prime Minister with the alleged wrongdoings of middlemen.

“This is a desperate attempt to link the work he (Najib) did when he was Deputy Prime Minister – which involved countless trade missions to promote Malaysia abroad, and meeting many thousands of people – with the alleged wrongdoings of middlemen who may have happened to have been in the same room as him at some time or another,” the statement said.

It added that the article had not contained any direct allegation about Najib as there is no evidence of such wrongdoings.

“The article does not contain a single direct allegation about the Prime Minister – and for good reason.

“There are none to be made and there is not one shred of evidence that the Prime Minister was in any way involved in the case that the courts have already made judgments on, with individuals convicted and punished,” it added.

The statement siad that the article which relied heavily on words such as – “suspected”, “alleged”, “suggesting” was grossly defamatory and seen as an attempt to tarnish the Prime Minister’s name.

“Instead of providing evidence to link the Prime Minister to the case, the article relies heavily on a series of slippery, non-conclusive words – “suspected”, “alleged”, “suggesting” – to lead the reader into thinking that the Prime Minister is guilty by association.

“This is grossly defamatory, and this sly and underhand way of attempting to tarnish the Prime Minister’s name is underlined by the fact that Australian court records quoted in the article state that “none of the named persons [including Mr Najib and Mr Badawi] is a person whom the accused are alleged to have conspired to bribe”,” it added.

The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, owned by Australia’s Fairfax Media group, had reported yesterday that senior officials in the Australian government were aware of intelligence that implicates people in the offices of both Najib and his predecessor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in a corruption case.

The case had triggered the prosecution of several Australian businessmen who worked for companies given the contract to turn the Malaysian paper notes into polymer notes.

The article however added that no overseas politicians were charged or formally accused of conspiring to receive bribes.