Perak BN Menteri Besar Zambry Abd Kadir today filed a RM100 million defamation suit against PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and three others over an article published by Suara Keadilan .

Zambry's lawyer, Firoz Hussein Jamaluddin, filed the suit at the High Court Registry here via Messrs Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak.

zambry abdul kadir interview 200409 03 Zambry named Wan Azizah as an office bearer of PKR, its deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali as the chief editor of Suara Keadilan , the publisher of the newspaper, Pelita Koridor Sdn Bhd, and the printer of Suara Keadilan , Percetakan NPK Sdn Bhd as the defandants.

In the statement of claim, he said the newspaper edition dated Dec 29, 2009, to Jan 5, 2010, entitled ‘Zambry Disyaki Pengganas - Gagal masuk ke Amerika Syarikat’ contained defamatory words which were false, baseless and maliciously published.

He avered that he was not denied entry into the United States and did in fact enter the US and was duly accorded recognition of his status as the Perak MB.

He said his visit to the US was widely reported in the media and the defendants had intentionally published the defamatory words.

‘Suspected of being a terrorist’

Zambry said the defamatory words had gravely injured his feelings and he had suffered serious damage to his public, personal and political reputation and had also been brought into public scandal, odium and contempt.

He also said that the defamatory words were designed to ridicule his position as the Perak MB and were published prominently on the back of the newspaper to attract the added attention of the reader and to cause maximum damage and embarrassment to him.

The defamatory words were understood to mean that he was suspected of being a terrorist, was involved in terrorism and was listed on a database of terrorists and was unfit to be Perak menteri besar and to hold public office, he said.

He is seeking RM100 million in damages, including aggravated and exemplary damages, interest of eight percent per anum and also an injunction to restrain the defendants from further publishing the defamatory words or any similar defamatory words against him. 

Zambry had earlier said that he was suing the PKR organ for committing “libel of the extreme kind”.

"This newspaper committed a big lie when it reported that I was hauled up at the San Francisco Airport in the United States as I was suspected of being a terrorist and forced to return to Malaysia.

"I don't know who their sources are, but the report is not true. It's totally a fabrication," he said .