Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is taking action against PAS party organ Harakahdaily over a report that linked his stepson to the controversial 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Utusan Online reported yesterday. The report said the letter of demand was handed over to Harakahdaily’s managing editor Dr Rosli Yaakub at 3pm yesterday.

Najib initiated the defamation proceedings against the Islamist party’s official paper over an article titled “Dana 1MDB biayai syarikat filem Riza Aziz?” (1MDB funding Riza Aziz’s production company?). The report, a commentary based on a New York Times article about the wealth of businessman Low Taek Jho and his role as a property investor, was written by Rosli and published on Feb 12.

Low, better known as Jho Low, is a close associate of Najib and is said to have had transactions with various parties, including Riza. Riza, the son of Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor from her earlier marriage, made headlines last year after he was revealed to be a producer of the award-winning movie The Wolf of Wall Street and his purchase of a luxury condominium in New York worth RM110 million.

The New York Times article, titled “Well connected at home, young Malaysian has an appetite for New York”, described how Jho Low began making some very expensive real estate deals in the US in 2010, using shell companies. His purchase of luxury condominiums, Rosli had written, raised important questions about where his money was coming from.

Said to be an adviser to 1MDB, Jho Low was paid a substantial amount for his role in the state investment vehicle, the Harakahdaily report said.

The article also questioned how Riza had obtained the funds to purchase a luxury property from Jho Low and to finance his production house Red Granite Pictures. Quoting the New York Times article, Harakahdaily said Riza had once commented that he had funded the movie with money obtained from “sovereign wealth”, believed to be a reference to 1MDB.

When contacted, Rosli said he was proud to be sued by the prime minister, adding that he would be seeking the advice of his lawyer Mohamed Hanipa Maidin before taking any action.

“I am proud that the prime minister wants to sue someone as small as me. I am proud that someone as big as the prime minister will sue me. He’s afraid of even a small person like me,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

However, he refused to reveal if had received the letter of demand from Najib as was reported by Utusan Online.

“I have yet to receive any letter today [yesterday],” said Rosli’s secretary Sharini Mat Sutris, who is also Harakahdaily’s administration manager.

In June last year, Najib sued news portal Malaysiakini over readers’ comments published on the website that were allegedly defamatory.

Najib also threatened to sue opposition lawmaker Tony Pua for “defamatory” remarks against him on Nov 3 last year about 1MDB which caused him “tremendous stress and embarrassment”. — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 27, 2015.

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