Lokman Adam gagged in RM50 million defamation suit while C4 admits to fake news against Rosli Dahlan
(Feedly.com) – Umno’s former Supreme Council member and Najib Tun Razak activist, Dato Lokman Noor Adam, has been gagged by an interim injunction Order granted by the High Court this morning. Judicial Commissioner Dato Mohd Arief Emran Ariffin granted the injunction order against Lokman in a RM50 million suit filed by 1MDB’s lawyer, Rosli Dahlan. This is JC Emran’s first case having been appointed only last week.
Lokman, who has been sacked from Umno, had falsely accused Rosli of receiving 10% amounting to RM1.7 billion in legal fees from the Goldman Sachs settlement of RM17 Billion in the 1MDB case. Lokman also alleged that Rosli then used the huge fees that he earned to give a RM500 million kickback to Bersatu.
1MDB had issued a statement on 26th March 2021 that the lawyers working on the case are paid based on pre-agreed hourly rates and not based on commission or success fee. On the same day, Rosli’s legal firm demanded that Lokman cease and desist from the continued posting of Lokman’s video which Rosli claim is totally false and highly defamatory of him.
After receiving the letter of demand, Lokman had deleted the video entitled “BERITA SENSASI, BENARKAH RUSLI DAHALN ORANG KANAN MUHYIDIN YANG PALING BANYAK DUIT SEKARANG? PEGUAM NEGARA PERLU MEMBERI PENJELASAN” which Rosli claimed constitute an admission of the falsehoods posted by Lokman.
However Rosli claimed that Lokman had failed to remove a second video entitled “HISHAMMUDDIN TIDAK YAKIN MAMPU MENANG JAWATAN PRESIDEN UMNO, ARAH ORANG KANAN BELIAU GESA MEREKA YANG DIDAKWA TARIK DIRI DARI BERTANDING” which had repeated the libel. As such, Rosli is claiming RM50 million as aggravated and exemplary damages.
In his affidavit, Rosli disclosed that Lokman had reached out to him to seek settlement and requesting Rosli’s agreement to waive the claim for compensation. However Lokman did not fulfill his promise to apologise via similar video and failed to turn up at Rosli’s office to make his personal apology. Rosli’s affidavit also stated that Lokman has a long history and penchant for making false accusations and fake news in his pursuit of cheap publicity.
Rosli was represented by Dato DP Naban and Joseph Wong of Messrs Rosli Dahlan Saravana on the injunction hearing this morning.
In a related development, the anti- corruption NGO, C4 headed by Cynthia Gabriel has asked their lawyers to inform Rosli that they had deleted the Fb and Twitter posting which had alleged that Rosli had siphoned off 1MDB’s settlement money. In the letter, GS Nijhar as C4’s lawyer stated that their client had no intention to defame Rosli and sought a meeting to discuss Rosli’s demands which C4 will accede to.
In 2007, Rosli Dahlan had sued all the mainstream newspapers, the Govt of Malaysia, the MACC and 17 Malaysian officials including the then Attorney General Gani Patail. Rosli is the first person to have won a defamation suit against the MACC for malicious prosecution. Rosli also won all his cases which were widely reported then.
The MACC and Govt also apologised to Rosli in open court on behalf of the other government defendants in 2014 and paid undisclosed damages in his RM50 million suit then. One of the defendants is the current DG of GIACC TS Abu Kassim. The irony is that Rosli now sits together with Abu Kassim in the 1MDB asset recovery Task Force.
