Umno’s defamation case against PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali and two others has been settled with the defendants having withdrawn their statements linking Umno to the distribution of
a sex video.

High Court judge John Louis O’Hara recorded the terms of the settlement in chambers with no order to costs.

Lawyer Raihanah Arifin, representing Umno, told reporters that the defendants’ withdrawal of their statements against Umno was published in HarakahDaily and The Malaysian Insider news portal two days ago, saying that their statement on April 13 last year did not refer to Umno, but Umno bloggers.

Umno filed the suit last April 23 against Mustafa, his lawyer Asmuni Awi and PAS organ HarakahDaily.net’s chief editor Zulkifli Sulong over allegedly defamatory statements that implicated Umno with the distribution of the video clip.

The sex video had featured a man that was said to resemble Mustafa.

In the statement of claim, filed by Umno secretary-general Abdul Rauf Yusoh, Umno claimed that the statements by the defendants, in five articles which were carried by www.malaysiakini.com, HarakahDaily. net and The Star newspaper, implied Umno as having masterminded the video clip.

Umno had sought for general, special, aggravated and exemplary damages, as well as interests and cost, and a injunction to stop the defendants from further publishing similar statements against the party.

- Bernama