Tuan Ibrahim, Rafizi reach settlement in defamation suit

Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man and Rafizi Ramli have agreed to an out-of-court settlement in a defamation suit over the PKR lawmaker’s claim that the PAS leader had approved an RM2 billion project when he was a caretaker government minister in 2022.

In a joint statement today, the two former ministers said that the settlement was in the spirit of amicability.

They resolved to set aside all disagreements or misunderstandings between them for the sake of social harmony, political stability and public interest.

“(With this settlement) Rafizi agrees to take down all postings on social media under his control, to prevent this matter from being prolonged, which may cause further misunderstanding towards him or Tuan Ibrahim.

“Tuan Ibrahim agreed to withdraw the suit, since the issue regarding the Mangkubumi Sdn Bhd project award was not the focus of Rafizi’s statement in 2022,” they said.

Contract for cronies claim

Tuan Ibrahim's defamation lawsuit filed in 2022 was over the allegation that the caretaker government, through the now-defunct environment and water ministry, had tried to bulldoze the awarding of contracts worth billions for purported cronies.

Rafizi’s media statement had claimed Tuan Ibrahim had awarded the Sungai Langat 2 flood mitigation project to Mangkubumi when he was the acting environment and water minister.

“Rafizi had advanced these questions (at that time) through his previous media statements based on information and documents obtained by him from trusted sources,” they said.

Tuan Ibrahim’s lawyer, Yusfarizal Yusoff, informed judicial commissioner Avinder Singh Gill of the settlement today, in which the court thanked both parties for their consideration and effort in ending their legal dispute.

In his civil suit, Tuan Ibrahim had sought a court injunction against Rafizi from issuing similar statements in the future, as well as general, aggravated and exemplary damages from the former economy minister.

The PAS deputy president had also sought for Rafizi to publicly apologise and for the Pandan MP to provide a clear and unconditional promise not to make similar statements, whether implicitly, explicitly, or through analogy, allusion, satire or language manipulation.

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