A news report about a businessman seeking the return of his money over a botched land deal has resulted in a politician-cum-lawyer threatening to sue Malaysiakini for defamation.

The news portal has today received a letter of demand by registered post from former Sabah PKR chief Ansari Abdullah claiming that his reputation had been “seriously damaged and or tarnished”.

The letter of demand was first posted in a blog on Monday as well as apparently emailed to both Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan and the online daily’s Sabah correspondent Joe Fernandez.

Ansari had on Monday issued a statement denying the claim that he owes RM144,000 in 'reimbursement' for land-premium payments made by one Sohon Singh to the Land and Survey Department (LSD) 12 years ago.

Sohon, 48, had earlier complained - without naming Ansari - that his attempts to retrieve the money had failed over the years.

However, Ansari had contended that he did not owe Sohon "even a sen" and denied all accusations and insinuations in the Malaysiakini report.

Sohon has lodged a couple of police reports against Ansari over the non-payment of the money, despite repeated reminders and letters of demand from his lawyers.

The money was said to be paid by Tanjung Berjaya (M) Sdn Bhd - the company which eventually bought the land - to Ansari as "reimbursement" to Sohon fter the initial deal fell flat.

Sohon had initially obtained the draft titled to the 663.5 acres piece of land in Lahad Datu, Sabah and had paid RM144,000 in land premium to the Land and Survey Department (LSD).

The businessman also lost the RM300,000 he paid to the 40 original landowners. Apparently, they refused to reimburse his money after they re-sold the land to Tanjung Berjaya.

Sohon claimed that his efforts to reclaim the money paid to LSD failed, but Tanjung Berjaya agreed to reimburse him through Ansari.

Of public interest

According to Ansari, the Malaysiakini report ‘Sabah PKR division chief runs to China from debt’ has put him into “public ridicule, odium and contempt” even though he wasn’t named in the article.

He said he “was the only Sabah PKR division chief who is a lawyer, who had performed the haj in 2004 and was in China from Nov 6 to 12, 2009".

“I have never taken even a sen from him (Sohon). The statement by Sohon Singh alleging that a Sabah PKR division chief ran away to China is slander and completely baseless," Ansari had said earlier this week.

The PKR leader also referred to two other Malaysiakini reports, parts of which he claimed were factually incorrect.

Ansari has given Malaysiakini 48 hours to retract and withdraw the articles and to publish an apology as well as pay an unspecified amount for damages to his reputation.

In an immediate response, editor-in-chief Gan said that the news reports were of public interest and written without malice.

“We stand by our reports. The report on Sohon Singh's claim was based on documents and other evidence obtained by our journalist.

“We stress that our reports were not intended to damage or tarnish Ansari's reputation.”

Sue me, says Sohon

Meanwhile, Sohon has written a letter to the editor of local newspaper New Sabah Times in response to its report, ‘Ansari denies fleeing to China over debts’ .

“I am not being used by any individual to discredit and tarnish Ansari’s image, both personally and politically as alleged.

“I am appealling to the relevant authorities to solve my 15-year-old ordeal where Ansari had repeatedly failed to honour his words to return my money amounting to RM144,000 which was escrowed into his legal firm's account meant for refund to me for payment of land premiums...”.

Sohon said that despite numerous letters of demand and attempts to see Ansari at his office and home, the lawyer politician had only made a partial payment amounting to RM10,000.

“I also welcomed Ansari’s plan to take action against me as this will be the perfect avenue for me and the public to know the whole truth behind this drama and eventually end my misery.”