Anwar to sue Samy if there's no apology

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has demanded a public apology and RM100 million in damages from a senior politician for alleged libelous remarks made against him.

Anwar’s counsel Sankara Nair named S Samy Vellu as the defendant over the MIC leader’s remarks which appeared in a Malay daily newspaper two weeks ago.

According to Sankara, Berita Harian in an April 15 article headlined ‘Kenyataan Anwar Dibidas’ reported Samy Vellu’s response to Anwar’s criticism of Barisan Nasional.

He cited the following three paragraphs in the article which contained the alleged defamatory remarks against Anwar:

Presiden MIC, Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu membidas keceluparan Penasihat Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yang mengkritik parti komponen Barisan Nasional (BN) selepas menggalakkan penyokongnya menggunakan pelbagai taktik kotor pada pilihanraya umum lalu.

“Katanya, negara akan lebih aman dan makmur jika tiada kelibat manusia seperti Anwar yang menggunakan ugutan, tekanan, paksaan dan menakut-nakutkan pengundi bagi menjamin kemenangan calon pembangkang.

“Saya sudah lama kenal dia. Ini cara mereka meraih undi,” katanya di Kuala Lumpur semalam.

Sankara (left) said that Samy Vellu’s allegations were understood to mean that Anwar, among others, was promoting “unlawful elections practices” and that he has no regard for the process of free and fair elections.

He added that Samy Vellu was also trying to show that Anwar was acting in a “criminal manner” as well as behaving “immorally, fraudulently and irresponsibly”.

“Your (Samy Vellu’s) utterances in the impugned article as stated above of our client (Anwar) are and were grossly negligent, reckless, irresponsible, deliberate, malicious and aimed to lower our client’s esteem in the eye of the public and expose our client to public hatred, scorn, odium, contempt and ridicule.” said Sankara in the letter of demand to Samy Vellu.

‘Samy seeking cheap publicity’

Sankara also added that Samy’s remarks was done mainly to seek cheap publicity and sensationalism.

In the letter, Sankara said that Samy Vellu “have or caused to have republished the following libelous comments in the impugned article.”

He stressed that the comments against Anwar was extremely libelous and has brought Anwar considerable distress and embarrassment.

According to an e-mail to Malaysiakini, Sankara said the letter of demand has been served to the MIC headquarters this morning.

Anwar gave Samy Vellu 48 hours to apologise otherwise a RM100 million law suit would be initiated against the MIC chief.