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Pua says he'll sue Lester for defamation
Published:  Jul 20, 2015 11:00 PM
Updated: Jul 21, 2015 4:15 AM

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua will be serving Lester Melanyi a letter of demand this week following a video recording by Lester that claimed the irregularities on 1MDB were faked.

Pua said in a statement tonight that the letter from his lawyers will  seek an apology from the former Sarawak Tribune journalist and will also be sent to others who repeat Lester's claims that implicate Pua in a conspiracy to fabricate information regarding 1MDB.

"Lester Melanyi has via his two-part videos to date directly accused me of conspiring with other parties, foreign and local, to fabricate and falsify information about 1MDB in order to cheat and lie to achieve whatever alleged objectives.

 

"The self-confessed paid 'confession' by Lester Melanyi is packed with incredulous tall tales, which even the most hardcore of BN supporters would find hard to believe.  

"In the latest video, he even alleged that 90 percent of what is published by Sarawak Report on 1MDB was fabricated and only 10 percent was truthful," said Pua ( photo ).

"If it were indeed made up of 90 percent lies, then I am certain that the Sarawak Report stories would have been debunked a long time ago by 1MDB. 

"Instead, 1MDB has, over the past six months, steadfastly refused to rebut the specific allegations which were backed with attached documents.

 

"This is a malicious attempt designed to destroy the reputation and credibility of those who were most critical of 1MDB. 

"Lester’s accusations mean that I had cheated and lied in my criticisms against the scandal-ridden company and that I had also conspired with other individuals to do the same via the Sarawak Report ," Pua added.

PetroSaudi International connection

In a two-part video recording  late last week and today, Lester claimed that documents obtained by whisteblower website Sarawak Report on the beleaguered 1MDB had been tampered with as part of a conspiracy to taint and topple Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

He claimed he was privy to the information as he had once worked for Sarawak Report and had been asked to go through certain documents for publication. These doucments were allegedly obtained from former PetroSaudi International executive Xavier Andre Justo.

At the centre of the controversy surrounding 1MDB are controversial deals involving both 1MDB and PetroSaudi International, about which Justo claimed he had inside information.

Lester claimed that the documents obtained from Justo were tampered with before they were published by Sarawak Report .

 

Sarawak Report editor-in-chief Clare Rewcastle Brown has denied that Lester worked for the website and dismissed the allegation of fabricating documents.

The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has since blocked access to Sarawak Report.

Pua, who is also DAP national publicity secretary, said Lester has seven days to retract and apologise publicly for the allegations, failing which he (Pua) would commence his legal suit.

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