Lim to lodge police report against Umno Online today

(The Malay Mail) – Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s political secretary, Zairil Khir Johari, will lodge a police report on his behalf at the State police contingent headquarters today.

Lim had given Umno Online a 48-hour ultimatum on Thursday to withdraw articles attacking his son, or a police report would be made.

Lim, who is also the DAP secretary-general, said both he and his wife were outraged by the continued accusation by bloggers against his 15-year-old son despite having issued a denial that none of the alleged incidents took place.

His son had been accused of outraging the modesty of a female classmate, causing him to be transferred to another school and that Lim paid RM200,000 to the girl’s family to keep things under wraps.

Lim said his son was the victim of “morally despicable and barbaric lies” and he had not wanted to involve the police in the matter initially.

Umno Online, in its reports, had called on Lim to address the allegations, claiming he was inconsistent in his statements regarding the issue.

Lim’s Press secretary, Cheong Yin Fan, said Lim could not personally lodge the police report because he had to attend the State assembly sitting.

“Lim’s political secretary will be making the police report because we have not received any apology from Umno Online and the articles attacking his son have not been removed from the site,” she told The Malay Mail.

Zairil also confirmed Lim was considering taking legal action against the portal.

“I have been asked to lodge the police report by the Chief Minister. We are considering legal action but we will tell you when the time comes,” he said.

DAP chairman Karpal Singh had made a separate police report last week against Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin for his comments on the allegations against Lim’s son in the microblogging service Twitter.

Khairy had twitted on Oct 17: “Mungkin dia roboh Kampung Buah Pala sebab nak ganti dengan Kampung Buah Dada” (Maybe he destroyed Kampung Buah Pala because he wants to replace it with Kampung Buah Dada).

Karpal also said he would initiate legal action against a tweet Khairy made on Oct 17 for criminal defamation.