KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 ― Umno’s Khairul Azwan Harun today filed a defamation lawsuit against PKR’s Rafizi Ramli over allegations that the former was linked to Majlis Amanah Rakyat’s (MARA) dubious property purchases in Melbourne.

The Umno Youth deputy chief added that the action was due to Rafizi’s refusal to apologise or retract his statements implicating the former in the PKR-linked National Oversight and Whistleblowers’ (NOW) exposes on MARA’s Australian property purchases that the latter alleged involved corruption.

“I would like to insist here that his accusations are untrue and was done with bad intentions against Umno Youth Malaysia and myself,” Khairul said in a statement today.

“I made this decision on the basis of upholding the truth and defending the dignity of the Umno Youth Malaysia movement, as well as the position entrusted in me,” he added.

All Umno Youth members are open to healthy debates but a line must be drawn with the spreading of “lies” as it could affect Malaysia’s political climate, he explained.

In response to the lawsuit, Rafizi said in a statement that he looked forward to divulging further details on the property transactions in court.

He also pledged to turn the tables on Umno Youth, claiming he has conclusive evidence of their role in the Australian transactions.

“I welcome the lawsuit and am ready to defend and present the facts of the scandal in court. My lawyer has informed me to be ready and we will take the necessary steps,” the PKR vice-president said.

“When the evidence is revealed next week, Khairul Azwan Harun and Khairy Jamaluddin can no longer deny the involvement of the Umno Youth leaders in the MARA scandal.

Rafizi, who is also NOW executive director, on July 6 named Khairul in an attempt to connect the dots over the purchase of a Melbourne property signed by two non-MARA officials to Umno Youth.

The PKR vice-president told a news conference that the 746 Swanston Street purchase agreement was signed by Erwan Azizi and Izmir Abdul Hamid as directors of the purchasing entity, Thrushcross Land Holdings.

Thrushcross is now wholly-owned by MARA Inc, but Rafizi claimed the registration was only made after the transaction was carried out instead of prior to it.

Referencing a report from business daily The Edge from February, Rafizi said Erwan was listed as a non-executive director at Biosis Group Berhad, and added that the company was chaired by Khairul Azwan, the Umno Youth deputy chief.

Rafizi also claimed Erwan was a shareholder at Optimus Capital Sdn Bhd in addition to Mazrul Haizad Maarof, who he said is the brother-in-law to Umno Youth executive council member Dazma Shah Daud.

The PKR lawmaker also said that the Umno Youth leaders had to answer for some RM63 million in leakages from the property deals.

NOW has been scrutinising MARA Inc’s Melbourne purchases since Australian daily The Age ran a story on the firm’s Dudley International House buy that exposed links between top MARA officials and certain businessmen connected to the ruling Barisan Nasional.

According to the Australian daily’s exposé, MARA Inc had allegedly overpaid A$4.75million (RM13.8 million) for Dudley House, which was purportedly used as a form of kickbacks.

On June 30, NOW alleged that apart from Dudley House, which MARA Inc reportedly bought for RM67.2 million, the firm also bought three other properties ― 746 Swanston Street for RM138.6 million, 333 Exhibition Street for RM99.2 million and 51 Queens Street for RM70.4 million.

The total sum paid for all four properties was RM375.4 million, the oversight body revealed.

Rafizi also said in June that the four property purchases were suspicious as they were either bought through an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands or wired through three different companies in three different countries.