KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — Former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik has apologised to the Selangor palace for claiming that its crown prince allegedly converted to Christianity.

Rahim further admitted that the source of the claim was from an unsubstantiated website.

“With regards to my posts on Twitter and Facebook regarding DYTM Raja Muda Selangor converting to Catholicism, I admit that it came from an unsubstantiated website.

“I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience and distress it may have caused DYMM Sultan of Selangor, DYTM Raja Muda Selangor and the Selangor Palace,” the retired politician was quoted as writing on his Facebook page yesterday by The Star Online.

According to The Star Online, Rahim’s apology is the third over four days, and is a Malay translation of his Monday apology on Facebook.

The news portal said the Selangor Palace had already brushed off the claim when it first appeared online, while a Malay-language newspaper was also said to have published an article on its front page then to reject the claim.

A screen capture of Former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik's facebook post.

The Star Online said that the Selangor Council of the Royal Court is expected to mull the issue in its meeting today.

Both the Selangor Sultan’s private secretary Datuk Mohamed Munir Bani and the Selangor crown prince’s private secretary Hanafisah Jais have lodged police reports on this issue, while the police have questioned a few individuals on the possible intention behind the publishing of the untrue claim, the news portal said.

It cited sources within the Selangor palace as saying that a check of facts would have shown the false claim originated from satirical site “World News Daily Report” (WNDR).

Last July, WNDR claimed that the Selangor crown prince had converted to Christianity and relinquished his royal rights, while the site claimed last March that a boy “raised by apes” had been discovered in Malaysia.

Last October, local paper Utusan Malaysia published a public apology after it ran a fake news story from WNDR of a Catholic priest in Indonesia who allegedly converted to Islam after waking up from a 17-month long coma.

WNDR publishes a disclaimer on its website stating among other things: “All characters appearing in the articles in this website — even those based on real people — are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.