Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Jamil Khir Baharom has slapped him with a legal letter over the ‘golfing abroad with funds for orphans’ claim but Akmal Nasir is unfazed.

The letter of demand served yesterday demanded a retraction and apology from the National Oversight and Whistleblowers (NOW) director by tomorrow.

“You must also withdraw all the defamatory statements and also promise that you will not make such statements again," read the letter of demand.

Akmal was also asked to pay RM10 million in damages.

However, Akmal said the claims he made against Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia (Yapeim) and the minister ( photo ) were based on facts.

Therefore, he does not see the need for him to apologise.

“This is especially since no quarter has come forward to refute my allegations,” he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

“I am confident that I’m not wrong for exposing the truth in order to save Yapeim’s funds," he added.

Explain with solid facts

Akmal also believes that the planned suit was only to divert attention away from Jamil who is also responsible to answer the issues raised by the former.

He added that if his allegations were indeed baseless in nature, then it was better for Jamil to explain things in the open and with solid facts.

“If he decides to go through with his plan to sue me, he will not only face me, but he would have to face Yapeim’s 588,930 contributors."

Asked whether he would continue making the exposes, Akmal said he was leaving the matter open for now.

On whether he would lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), he admitted that there were plans to do so.

Nevertheless, Akmal stressed that settling the letter of demand comes first before he decides to lodge the report or otherwise.

Previously, he had claimed that Jamil had abused Yapeim funds meant for orphans to go shopping and golfing in the US with his wife, citing invoices billed to a Yapeim subsidiary.

The total bill for the four-day trip amounted to RM410,978.56 according to Akmal, but he later revised the estimate to RM590,000 for a delegation of 100 people.

Jamil had countered Akmal saying that the latter’s claims amounted to "malicious slander and misleading" and threatened Akmal with a lawsuit.