Case settled, Rafizi Ramli apologises to Abdul Rahman

KUALA LUMPUR: The case of former minister in Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan's suit against Mohd Rafizi Ramli was settled after the PKR vice-president apologised to him for allegedly issuing a defamatory statement on the organisation of the 2017 Negaraku Expo.
Mohd Rafizi's apology was read out by his attorney Abdul Halim Abdul Karim before High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Abd Wahab and attended by lawyer Datuk M. Reza Hassan representing Abdul Rahman.
Mohd Rafizi, 41, and Abdul Rahman, 53, were absent from today's proceedings.
Abdul Halim, when reading the statement, said his client had received information from journalists on the awarding of the contract on the organisation of the Negaraku Expo by the Economic Planning Unit headed by Abdul Rahman to a company known as PICO Integrated Exhibit Sdn Bhd, supposedly belonging to Abdul Rahman's brother, Raslan Dahlan.
The lawyer said Mohd Rafizi admitted that he only relied on information from journalists and did not make any further checks on Raslan's identity as CEO of PICO Integrated.
"I (Mohd Rafizi) later realised that I was mistaken as Abdul Rahman had nothing to do with Raslan or PICO Integrated.
"So I admit my mistake and sincerely apologise to Abdul Rahman for my actions. I regret my action very much and did not intend to cause shame to Abdul Rahman and promise not to repeat it," according to the statement.
At the beginning of the proceedings, M. Reza told the court that both parties had signed a draft judgment draft to settle the suit.
The lawyer said the plaintiff (Abdul Rahman) had also received an apology from the defendant (Mohd Rafizi) and subsequently withdrew the suit.
After Abdul Halim finished reading the apology from Mohd Rafizi, Judge Mohd Zaki then recorded a consent judgment and ordered the defendant (Mohd Rafizi) to pay RM20,000 in costs to Abdul Rahman.
"The judgment of the agreement is a full and final solution and the parties involved have no right to file any claims on this action," said the judge who also thanked all parties for resolving the suit.
On Jan 30 last year, Abdul Rahman sued Mohd Rafizi after claiming on Nov 10, 2017, Mohd Rafizi, via his Facebook account, stated that he would hold a press conference to expose the misappropriation of a minister.
The former Kota Belud, Sabah MP claimed that Mohd Rafizi held a press conference titled 'Umno's New Scandal, Which Minister Will Get It This Time?', which was published directly via his Facebook account, namely, Rafizi Ramli @ rafiziramli.keadilan at his office in Sungai Besi, here on Dec 11, 2017, with journalists from various media.
He claimed that the defendant, with malicious intent, published the defamatory statement which referred to him, and among other things, meant that the plaintiff was dishonest and corrupt and accused him of being involved in a misleading transaction. — Bernama