PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu has filed a defamation suit against Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Mashitah Ibrahim.

Mashitah, who is also a columnist for Sinar Harian , had written an article entitled ‘ Skandal seks, krisis politik Pakatan ’ (Sex scandal, and Pakatan’s political crisis) which was published on March 2, this year.

Also named as defendants are Sinar Harian’ s chief editor Norden Mohamed, Sinar ’s publisher Sinar Karangkraf Sdn Bhd and printer Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd.

The suit was filed on Sept 25, and a copy was made available today.

NONE Mohamad, or popularly known as Mat Sabu, is not the only one involved as PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had also filed a similar suit against Mashitah ( left ) a week earlier.

The article had allegedly painted a negative picture of Mat Sabu as he was alleged to have exposed his aurat to a female who is not related to him, and that this was improper behaviour, that he was an immoral leader and an Islamic leader with low morals.

The PAS deputy president claimed that the article had affected his reputation, integrity, and credibility. It also resulted in him being put under public scandal and odium.

He further alleged that the defendants had provoked and published the article in bad faith.

Mat Sabu is seeking general, exemplary and aggravated damages and other orders deemed fit by the court.

He is also seeking an apology and a withdrawal of the article.

Today the matter came up for case management, where Justice Yeoh Wee Siam has ordered the defendants to file their defence by Oct 30.

She also ordered that Mat Sabu’s lawyer file his reply to the defence after that.

Justice Yeoh then fixed Nov 23 for further case management.