Filing a civil suit is a personal right and there's nothing wrong with this, said Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar today.

"Nobody can stop anyone from bringing a case to court," he told a press conference at the Parliament lobby.

He was responding to queries on the civil suit filed by a policeman against a teenager who had initially lodged a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) which led the former to be charged in court.

Yesterday, Parliamentary human rights caucus chairperson and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said such suits were against public policy.

Last June, Foo Sze Kuan, then 17, filed an ACA report claiming that a few policemen had demanded a bribe amounting to RM300 for a traffic offence in Seremban.

Following this, the policeman was charged this March but acquitted last month. However, he had also filed a defamation suit against Foo in May.

The first hearing scheduled for last week has been postponed to January.

Commenting further, Noh said the court should be allowed to decide on the matter. "He (the policeman) has the right to bring the case to court".

Seized publications

In an unrelated development, Noh Omar told the Dewan Rakyat earlier that his ministry had confiscated 8,812 titles of printed items during 609 operations on 2,979 premises between January and September this year.

He said the ministry also had checked 122,356,384 printed items and confiscated 431,185 of them at entry points nationwide.

On the same note, he said 135 letters of advice, 166 reminders, 19 warning letters and seven show-cause letters have been issued over the same period to printing and publishing companies for violating the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA)1984.

The ministry also suspended one printing permit this year, he added.