Retract and apologise or be sued, Tony Pua tells Lester

PETALING JAYA: DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua threatened to sue former Sarawak Tribune editor Lester Melanyi over the latter's claim that he is involved in a plot to smear 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) using forged documents.
In a statement today, Pua categorically denied the allegations and said his lawyers had issued a letter of demand to Lester seeking an apology and retraction within seven days under threat of a defamation suit.
"Lester's accusation meant that I had cheated and lied in my criticisms against the scandal-ridden company and that I had also conspired with others to do the same via Sarawak Report (SR)," he said.
Lester released part two of his series of video exposes claiming evidence of forgery and collaborated conspiracy between SR, Tony Pua, and PKR's Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli earlier today to bring ill-repute to 1MDB.
He claimed to have known of Pua's participation in the plot as he contacted Lester to ask if he was part of the "1MDB action".
On Thursday, Lester released part one of the video, claiming that SR founder Claire Rewcastle-Brown fabricated documents to implicate Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and 1MDB of corruption.
Meanwhile, Pua posted on his Facebook page a copy of an insolvency report of Lester, declaring him a bankrupt.
Today the Kuching police recorded statements from Lester over the disclosure of an alleged plot by several opposition politicians and the Sarawak Report news portal administrator to denigrate Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Seri Muhammad Sabtu Osman said today police officers from Bukit Aman in Kuala Lumpur were here on July 17 and 18 to record the statements and Sarawak police assisted in the process fully handled by Bukit Aman.
"They also seized several computer equipment. No arrests were made," he said when contacted by Bernama.
Melanyi had reportedly alleged recently that almost 90% of the content in a report of Sarawak Report on government investment company 1MDB had been tampered with to tarnish the image of the Malaysian government and topple Najib.
Melanyi had reportedly admitted to having met Swiss national Xavier Andre Justo, a former executive of PetroSaudi International Ltd now held in Bangkok, who had allegedly handed over 10% of the documents related to 1MDB to Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown.
Meanwhile the bankruptcy search result from the Insolvency Department showed that Lester had been declared a bankrupt since June 19, 2012.
The post has received over 1,000 Likes and was shared over 300 times within an hour since it was uploaded.
In the post, Pua slammed Lester as not being able to 'fabricate (information) properly, putting up a bus company employee in Norwich as the master forger working for the SR in London'.
He was referring to Lester's video expose on a 'James Steward Stephen' who allegedly works for SR to fabricate emails and agreements to tarnish Najib and 1MDB's image.
SR has since dismissed Lester's allegation, and revealed that James Steward was a senior station manager for the bus company Abellio, based in Norwich.