KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21): Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he has received the writ of summons of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s defamation suit against him, and will let his lawyers handle it according to the law.

“As Anwar had chosen to bring the matter to court, I have left it to my lawyers to handle the case according to the law,” the opposition leader said in a brief statement on his Facebook page on Wednesday (Dec 21).

Anwar filed the defamation suit against Muhyiddin following the PN chairman's statement — made at a ceramah during the Padang Serai election campaign earlier this month — which alleged Anwar had received RM15 million payment from the Selangor government for taking on the role as its economic adviser.

Anwar has denied the allegation and claimed he only received RM1 for the job. The political secretary to the Selangor Menteri Besar, Juwairiya Zulkifli, has also released a press statement denying Muhyiddin’s allegations.

Anwar said the statements made by Muhyiddin are completely untrue, extreme, vile, and spurious, have no basis whatsoever, and had affected his image internationally and in Malaysia as a politician who is against bribery and corruption.

Anwar said he emphatically denounced the allegations against him in respect to the RM15 million salary and claimed the allegedly libellous words uttered by Muhyiddin are detrimental to his reputation as PKR president, Pakatan Harapan chairman, Tambun MP, the current PM, and the Finance Minister.

Anwar described Muhyiddin's words as deliberate, malicious and had tried to portray him as a person who struck private deals to enrich himself, which caused him to be exposed to public hatred and ridicule.

Anwar is seeking general, aggravated, and compensatory damages from his suit, and an injunction to bar Muhyiddin or his agents from repeating and publishing those words.

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Anwar files defamation suit against Muhyiddin