The battle of words continued among some of the top legal brains in this country, with Bukit Gelugor MP and DAP chairperson Karpal Singh challenging Kita president Zaid Ibrahim to sue him.

The veteran and still practising lawyer Karpal said that Zaid is “at liberty to sue me”.

“However, he must be prepared to face the consequences of placing himself in the witness box. Zaid Ibrahim should be well aware, as a lawyer, in defamation proceedings one contends that his reputation has been lowered in public esteem.

NONE“To succeed, one must prove, as a prerequisite, that he had a subsisting good reputation. That is the risk Zaid Ibrahim must be prepared to take,” challenged Karpal (left) in a statement today.

Zaid - who had formed what is now the biggest law firm in the country - had yesterday insisted that he would be taking legal action against Karpal for defamation in the latter’s speech during the recent Pakatan Rakyat convention.

In the convention held just last weekend, Karpal had called Zaid “celaka” and “(former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad)’s hatchet boy”.

Among other accusations hurled, Karpal had also claimed that Zaid had a hand in the 1988 sacking of former Lord President Salleh Abbas, which led to a constitutional crisis in the country, and that he had wanted to burn down the Bar Council building.

To that, Zaid had called Karpal a “liar” and a “snake”, reminding that the opposition man had called on the government to expedite investigations into former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim’s alleged sodomy charges in Parliament back in October 1997.

“So we will see if he will sue me for calling him a snake, and I will definitely sue him for the lies he uttered yesterday. Thank God, I joined Pakatan... only by being with them does one know their true colours,” said Zaid.

‘Zaid inconsequential’

In response, Karpal however said that he would not be suing Zaid, despite the latter’s statements against himself. But there were some choice words from the fiery politician.

“I regret I cannot accept Zaid’s invitation to sue him for the allegations he made against me yesterday. He is too inconsequential for me to spend labour and effort to do so,” said Karpal in his statement.

Despite Karpal’s initial verbal attacks on Zaid, the former had called on the former PKR leader to be “professional in the use of language”.

Defending himself, Karpal also said that his statements 13 years ago were merely what any opposition MP would do.

“I did at that time, as an opposition MP, ask that (sodomy) allegations be investigated. In fact, Dr Mahathir had publicly defended Anwar, saying that attempts were being made to unfairly implicate his deputy and that there was no basis to the allegations.

“After Anwar was charged with sodomy following his dismissal as deputy prime minister, I was invited to join the defence team and presently I am also defending him over the second sodomy charge he is facing.

“The fact that Anwar wants me to be his defence counsel despite my position against him when he was in government, clearly shows he has confidence in me to effectively represent him,” he said.