Rahim Thamby Chik's defamation suit settled with apology from Khoo, DAP

KUALA LUMPUR: The defamation suit brought by Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik against DAP assistant secretary-general Khoo Poay Tiong and the party over articles in which they allegedly linked him to various scandals has been resolved, with an apology by the defendants today.

Khoo, who also represented the party, when reading out the statement of apology before High Court Judicial Commissioner Dr John Lee Kien How @ Mohammad Johan Lee, said the articles were baseless, untrue, and were defamatorty of Abdul Rahim and his family.

"We hereby apologise and express our regret for any distress and problems caused to Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik and his family by the publication of these articles.

"We have deleted the articles and promised not to publish any more articles containing these or similar allegations against Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik," he said.

The court then recorded the consent judgement and ordered a cost of RM180,000 to be paid to Abdul Rahim.

Hearing of the defamation suit trial was supposed to begin today until Thursday, but the parties involved decided to resolve the matter through a consent judgment.

Lawyer Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, represented Abdul Rahim, while Khoo and DAPwere represented by lawyer Ramkarpal Singh.

Besides Khoo, Abdul Rahim also named DAP office bearers - then national chairman Tan Kok Wai, Gobind Singh Deo (deputy chairman) and Lim Guan Eng (secretary-general) - as the second to fourth defendants.

Abdul Rahim, who filed the suit on Sept 17, 2020,claimed that on Dec 16, 2018, Khoo, who is also Kota Melaka MP, had written, published and/or caused an article to be published, with defamatory words linking him to various scandals, on his Facebook page, DAP website www.dapmalaysia.org and a news portal www.thestar.com.my.

-- BERNAMA