Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor have filed a defamation suit against PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli.

The couple claimed that Rafizi had defamed them at a forum last November by stating that fuel prices were maintained to allow Rosmah to buy more diamond rings.

Also named in the suit is Chan Chee Kong, who is said to be the owner of the Media Rakyat YouTube channel, who uploaded a video of Rafizi's speech.

The suit was filed by the firm of Hafarizam, Wan Aisha and Mubarak at the Kuala Lumpur High Court's  civil division and served on Rafizi's lawyers.

The PM and his wife are seeking general, exemplary and aggravated damages and costs.

They are also seeking an injunction to bar Rafizi or his agents from repeating the said defamatory words and an apology.

Najib and Rosmah in their statement of claim alleged that Rafizi's statement meant that they had unlawfully stolen the people's monies in relation to the removal of subsidies just to gain personally.

They claimed that Rafizi's allegations also meant  that they had committed theft by pocketing the subsidy monies for themselves.

They further said it also meant that they were guilty of theft and corruption and had betrayed the people of the country by stealing public monies.

Letters of demand

The PM and his wife also claimed that what Rafizi said meant they had abused their power for their own personal gain and as such are untrustworthy and therefore unfit to hold public office.

This had made Rafizi the second serving MP to be sued by a prime minister since Tony Pua, who was sued in March over a speech on Najib's links with 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Najib is also threatening to sue PAS mouthpiece Harakah over an article regarding 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and his step-son Reza Aziz.

Last week he filed a letter of demand against Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming over a Facebook posting depicting Rosmah and Najib with other cabinet members.

The PM claimed the posting insinuated that his wife influenced cabinet decisions.

Last December, Najib's lawyer had served a letter of demand to Rafizi ( left ), demanding that he apologise for making defamatory remarks.

Among others, the letter said Razifi's speech had mentioned that that Putrajaya saved RM1 billion in subsidies from maintaining fuel prices, which can be used to purchase 20 rings for Rosmah.

The letter dismissed this as "entirely baseless and false" allegations made with the "primary intention of attacking and damaging our clients' goodwill and reputation for no justifiable reason".

"In doing so, you were acting with malice," read the letter.