Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's RM100 million libel suit is meant to silence her critics, said PKR strategy chief Mohd Rafizi Ramli, who has been named as a plaintiff.

"If Umno leaders like Shahrizat think they can silence us and insult the people’s intelligence with a lawsuit like this, they are making a big mistake," he said.

NONERafizi (left) and the other plaintiff, PKR women’s chief Zuraida Kamaruddin, are key critics of Shahrizat and her family for their alleged involvement in the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) project.

In a statement today, Rafizi said he is convinced that his exposés so far have been truthful, yet, he added, Shahrizat still needs to face the people in the court of public opinion.

"Therefore, I believe the filing of the lawsuit is a political manoeuvre to silence me and Zuraida from continuing our exposés, in addition to giving the impression that she is not afraid to defend NFC in court," he said.

Raifizi and Zuraida had previously given a series of press conferences alleging that NFC, owned by Shahrizat’s family members, had misused a RM250 million government soft loan meant for NFC to operate its cattle project.

Rafizi said his team had consulted the party’s lawyers before beginning his exposés and is ready to face Shahrizat’s lawyers in court.

"Our time in court would be fully utilised to expose even more abuses, which are bound to be observed by even more people," he said.


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