KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 — Caretaker Selangor menteri besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said he has told his lawyers to start defamation action against his Kedah counterpart, Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, for accusing him of a purported scandal involving Berjaya Land Bhd.
Amirudin said he wholly rejected the claim Sanusi made in a political speech during a Perikatan Nasional campaign event in Jitra, Kedah on Wednesday.
“His remarks are plainly defamatory, and the attempt of an individual desperate to draw attention away from the alleged rare earth element scandal revolving around him, which he still has failed to answer with facts this entire time,” Amirudin said in a statement today.
Amirudin also said he already explained the matter at length during a Selangor state assembly meeting last year and again during the parliamentary meeting in March.
Sanusi reportedly claimed on August 2 that a business tycoon was about to secure a major stake in a Selangor-owned company, further alleging that the matter was a scandal due to “explode” soon.
Aside from Amirudin, Berjaya Land has also issued a statement rejecting Sanusi’s allegation.
Sanusi is currently at the centre of a scandal over the alleged theft of rare earth elements in his state, and is being targeted for this by PKR secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
After previously threatening to sue over the claim, Sanusi has been on the back foot after Saifuddin, who is also the home minister, released a photograph of the PAS leader with a Chinese national alleged to be involved in the theft.
The released of the photograph forced Sanusi to admit knowing the suspect, before insisting that their acquaintance was purely casual.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had arrested Kedah Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI) CEO Muhamad Sobri Osman and a director of a company to assist in an investigation involving corruption amounting to more than RM13 million, but have since released the two.
MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki previously said Sanusi would be among those called in by the anti-graft agency in its investigation into the case, for which it has already called in 10 incumbent Kedah executive council members for questioning.
