THE defamation suit filed by former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, P. Waytha Moorthy against former UMNO Supreme Council member Lokman Noor Adam over the latter’s speech on the death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim has been settled at the High Court today.

Waytha Moorthy’s lawyer, Annou Xavier, said the terms of the consent order had been agreed to by both parties.

However, he said, the terms of the consent order could not be disclosed.

“At today’s proceedings, Judge Akhtar Tahir recorded the consent order. The suit has been resolved,” he added.

On April 26, 2019, Waytha Moorthy filed the suit against Lokman Noor on April 26, 2019, over a speech by the latter during an assembly held in the federal capital on January 4, 2019, on the death of Muhammad Adib.

Waytha Moorthy, who was the then minister in charge of National Unity and Social Wellbeing, in his statement of claim, alleged that the defendant had spoken at a protest attended by about 100 participants and the speech was uploaded on the defendant’s Facebook page, which received 55,500 views and was shared 1,658 times as of April 18, 2019.

The plaintiff claimed the defamatory speech was uploaded in two videos via Youtube, KiniTV and Sinar TV with the heading “Several ministers tried to amend Muhammad Adib’s post-mortem report, claimed Lokman”.

He said the defamatory speech was also produced in four articles, among them titled “Lokman accuses several ministers of attempting to amend Adib’s post-mortem report” and “Waytha Moorthy among ministers who requested for Adib’s post-mortem report to be amended”, by several news portals, including Malaysia Kini and Minda Rakyat, dated January 4 and 5, 2019.

Waytha Moorthy claimed the alleged defamatory statements were not true and affected his reputation as a minister and senator at that time.

He also said the statements were intended to mean, among other things, that he was a dishonest minister who attempted to manipulate the medical report on Muhammad Adib’s death and failed to carry out his duties as a minister responsible for national unity and social wellbeing in dealing with the riots at the Sri Mariamman Temple in USJ, Subang. 

Lokman Noor, in his statement of defence filed on July 3, 2019, denied that his speech at the assembly defamed the plaintiff, claiming that it was made based on fair comment and for public interest. – Bernama, August 29, 2022.