Ex-deputy minister sues NGO over human trafficking allegation

Former deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mashitah Ibrahim is suing a rights group for defamation over an allegation linking her to a Myanmar-based human trafficking network.

She has turned to the Shah Alam High Court to compel the Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) to apologise over the allegation.

Recently, Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain cleared Mashitah (above) and her husband of any involvement in the syndicate.

MHO called for an investigation following the airing of a clip from an Indonesian YouTube documentary titled “Neraka Perbatasan: Jejak Mafia Judi Online dan Perbudakan Digital di Asia”.

Via the civil action filed on Sept 6, Mashitah also seeks unspecified general, compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages.

The senior politician, who was deputy minister from 2008 to 2013, claimed that the MHO defamed her in a press conference uploaded to social media on Aug 28 last year.

Mashitah said the group made a baseless and untruthful allegation when referring to a former deputy minister who has a company involved directly with the firm perpetrating human trafficking.

She claimed that screenshots of her Facebook page with her pictures were displayed during the presser.

She also claimed that the group never tried to get verification from her before maliciously making the allegation.

The Shah Alam High Court set Tuesday next week to hear her application for an injunction against MHO.

Law firm Akberdin & Co represented the plaintiff.

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