With regards to a letter from M/s Shook Lin & Bok, dated Dec 10, 2003, as solicitors for Dr Cyrus V Das, threatening legal action for libel, malaysiakini wishes to state as follows:

Malaysiakini would like to clarify that it published the article titled ' Maika scandal: Police report lodged against Samy's lawyer ' on Dec 5, 2003 following a telephone interview by our reporter Fauwaz Abdul Aziz with lawyer Selvam Shanmugam on the same day.

Although lawyer S Shanmugam has now stated otherwise , malaysiakini maintains that lawyer S Shanmugam did state the words attributed to him in the article, in the said telephone interview.

On Dec 6, 2003, malaysiakini had published a statement from Dr Cyrus V Das that the allegation is a complete smear and a falsehood.

As is common in all our stories, malaysiakini does not associate itself with the allegations made by the interviewee, in this case lawyer S Shanmugam. If the said article implied in anyway otherwise, malaysiakini expresses its regrets to Dr Cyrus V Das.

At no time, in any of our reports on this matter, did malaysiakini intend to question the integrity or reputation of Dr Cyrus V Das, a senior member of the Malaysian Bar and former chairperson of the Bar Council.