KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — Umno's Supreme Council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam has agreed to publish a public apology and pay an undisclosed sum to former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin over a defamation suit about the latter’s Covid-19 vaccination status back in 2022.
In today's court proceeding before High Court judge Johan Lee Kien How, Lokman's public apology — to be published on his Facebook and YouTube accounts in both Bahasa Malaysia and English — were part of the consent judgement recorded in court.
Today was initially fixed for a full hearing of the defamation suit.
Khairy's lawyer Abdul Rashid Ismail said the defendant has agreed to not republish or share the purported defamatory statement; including issuing an open apology on both social media platforms plus payment of an undisclosed sum as compensation.
Abdul Rashid added that Lokman has also agreed to delete the seven social-media postings which include two videos and refrain from republishing the said posts.
Khairy was present in today's hearing. Lokman was however absent.
Lawyer Logen Eksander Abdullah appeared on Lokman's behalf.
Khairy had filed the suit in his personal capacity alleging that Lokman had defamed him by uploading two videos with pictures on Lokman Nor Adam’s official Facebook page on January 6, 2022 and making statements through two live posts on Facebook and ‘Lokman Adam’ through YouTube on January 10, 2022.
In his filed statement of claim, Khairy had claimed that Lokman's libellous statements implied that he had deceived the public by claiming he had been given the Covid-19 vaccine and received a booster dose as well as falsified information on the vaccination status.
Khairy added that the defamatory postings were against the public interest and disrupted the efforts of the Health Ministry (MOH) and government in the fight against Covid-19, and affected the public’s response to the pandemic as well as the official data and facts provided by MOH to the public.
