Guan Eng to file defamation suit against Papa Azri and others over ‘fake news’
KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng will be filing a defamation suit against Umno youth leader Wan Muhammad Azri or better known under the moniker “Papa Azri”, “Sir Azri” or “Papa Gomo” among others.
In a press statement today, the Bagan MP accused Azri and supporters of Barisan Nasional (BN), Umno and PAS for spreading false news against himself and his son.
“A national Umno Youth leader using the name, “Papa Azri”, had started off this malicious lie by stating that I flew to Singapore on 29 February, after my son was hauled up at Singapore Airport for bringing in RM2 million cash without proper declaration.
“This news then went viral through the BN and Umno support groups, especially their internet websites.
“Even the Media Chinese International Limited (MCIL) got into the act, in their enthusiasm to drive the knife in against a Pakatan Harapan leader, when one of their newspapers published the news without any professional verification,” Lim said.
MCIL comprises of vernacular newspapers Sin Chew Daily, Guang Ming Daily, China Press and Nanyang Siang Pau.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador has since denied the reports of arrest and classified it as false.
On that day Lim said he was in Kuala Lumpur trying to “defend” the 2018 public mandate.
“I hope that the police can take stern action and arrest the perpetrators of such false news that hurt innocent lives, to protect innocent Malaysians. My family is furious for such shameless targeting of our innocent children, who are not in politics.
“Will Umno act against their leaders and supporters for such unethical, immoral and illegal conduct? Will the new unelected government also act against such unethical, immoral and illegal behaviour?” he questioned.
Lim then lambasted the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration accusing the ruling coalition of trying to blindside their supporters with this fake news as a cover-up of their incompetence in managing the ongoing economic and health crisis.
Furthermore, the Bagan MP also recalled that Azri had also previously made another false allegation against his other son — claiming that the boy had sexually assaulted a female classmate.
Azri had even showed a photograph of the female “victim” — who was actually a chess champion from Hong Kong who had never met Lim’s son.
The ousted finance minister accused the PN backdoor administration of not representing all Malaysians from all communities based on the social media post by their supporters on the matter who had used “disgusting racial sentiments” in their writings.
“As a PH political leader, I expect to face such bullying of lies, falsehoods and threats from my opponents.
“But my political opponents who are now in power, have shown themselves without any shame, bereft of moral or humane values and upbringing by mercilessly targeting my innocent children,” Lim said.
Separately, Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau this afternoon posted a note of apology on its website over a news report it had uploaded early yesterday morning.
Nanyang said the report it had published yesterday related to a purported arrest of a senior PH leader’s son over the alleged bringing in of RM2 million into Singapore, noting that it had not identified the purported leader or political party but said that the report was later used by others online to attack the related person.
In its note of apology this afternoon, Nanyang said it has since found that the report was published as a result of misjudgement and that it has removed this report from its website, further apologising to the affected person and all its readers.
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