KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said he has paid the court-ordered compensation to Kedah Pakatan Harapan chairman Datuk Mahfuz Omar, and denied having any links to an individual who was purportedly collecting donations on his behalf to pay for the defamation lawsuit’s costs, a report has said.
According to PAS’s party paper HarakahDaily, Sanusi had yesterday said he did not know about the purported donation collection and did not know the individual.
“I have already paid the bayaran saman (lawsuit payment) to Dato’ Mahfuz. I also don’t know that individual. Not involved with me. Maybe he was sympathetic towards me,” he was quoted saying in a press conference yesterday.
HarakahDaily said a video went viral on social media app TikTok where an individual who introduced himself to be from Kedah appeared to seek for donations to help Sanusi pay the compensation in a defamation lawsuit, but with the individual also reportedly warning Sanusi to make efforts to make the payment himself.
HarakahDaily said online users considered the video as being intentionally created to mock Sanusi, and said police reports have been lodged over the matter.
Separately, Sanusi’s political secretary Mohamad Hilmi Abdul Wahab’s statement was published yesterday by HarakahDaily, where he said a viral video of a purported donation drive to cover Sanusi’s costs of paying for a lawsuit was a “lie and malicious attempt to harm the image of YAB Menteri Besar and PERIKATAN NASIONAL”.
“I, as the Kedah menteri besar’s political secretary, firmly deny that there is a collection for donations from YAB Kedah Menteri Besar or PERIKATAN NASIONAL,” he said in the statement, adding that a police report will be lodged soon.
He expressed hope that the authorities would investigate and take stern action on the individual who was allegedly trying to hurt Sanusi’s image.
Muhammad Sanusi, who is from PAS, is also Perikatan Nasional’s election director.
Mahfuz had in October 2019 sued Sanusi for defamation over the latter’s July 30, 2019 Facebook post, which had linked Mahfuz as the then Pokok Sena MP to the transfer of a Sports Toto outlet to that area.
Mahfuz won the defamation lawsuit in November 2021 at the High Court where Sanusi was ordered to pay RM50,000 in compensation, and again won at the Court of Appeal on April 3 this year where the compensation Sanusi was ordered to pay was increased to RM120,000.
Mahfuz later publicly reminded Sanusi to pay the RM120,000 compensation, as the deadline for payment — within 14 days’ from the April 3, 2023 court order if no appeal is made — was already over.
On May 6, Sanusi said he had already handed over the money for the defamation compensation to his lawyers since a week ago and that his lawyers were handling the matter with Mahfuz’s lawyers, and said there was no need for Mahfuz to use social media regarding the matter.
