Gerakan filed a defamation suit against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for his claim that the party under its former head Koh Tsu Koon sold reclaimed land for RM1 per square foot.

The suit was filed at the Penang High Court by the party's secretary-general Liang Teck Meng and his lawyer-cum-Gerakan national legal and human rights bureau chief Baljit Singh.

The suit was filed based on articles published in Malaysiakini on March 17, 2013 and May 18 this year, in DAP Malaysia website on March 23, 2013 and Jan 2 this year, in The Edge Market on Dec 5, 2013, on Lim's Facebook page on May 18 this year and on his website on Jan 2 this year.

Gerakan is seeking exemplary, aggravated and general damages, and a five percent annual interest starting from the date of judgment. The sum of the damages shall be assessed by the court.

It also wants Lim (photo) to apologise and publish his apology over his alleged defamatory statements in all media outlets, and bear the cost of the publications.

Asked why Koh, the one purportedly defamed, was not filing the suit, Liang said the former chief minister has retired.

He said Gerakan as a party has the locus standi to file the suit against Lim, and Koh will be called as a witness.

At this point, Baljit chipped and said: "In his statements, Lim never directly mentioned Koh but he made the claims against Gerakan many times".

Asked why was Gerakan practising double standards as it used to condemn Lim for suing many including the press, Liang denied the claim.

"We are suing him only for the first time and he is already saying we are practising double standards, but we are suing because he keeps repeating the allegations for four years," he explained.

On why it took Gerakan four years to file the suit, Liang added: "We thought people would not believe him and they would understand. But after he (Lim) repeated his lies, some people started to believe him so we have to clear our name."

On July 11, Gerakan decided to sue Lim for releasing alleged defamatory statements and articles against the party and its leaders.

Gerakan took offence over Lim's claims that the previous state government under its former president had sold reclaimed land in Tanjung Tokong (Sri Tanjung Pinang) to a developer back in the 1990s for only RM1 per square foot.

Lim had issued statements claiming that the area sold covered 980 acres, valued at RM42.7 million.

In its letter of demand sent to Lim on July 11, the CM was asked to "apologise formally and without condition" to Gerakan through a press conference, within three days, or 72 hours.

However, Lim found no basis for issuing an apology to Gerakan over claims that he had defamed the party and the former chief minister.

He produced documents to back up his claim in March 2013.