MACC chief drops defamation lawsuit

PUTRAJAYA: Top graft buster Tan Sri Azam Baki says his lawsuit against a senior researcher was withdrawn after both parties agreed to halt the proceedings.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner said following the decision, the case between him and Centre for Combating Cronyism and Corruption (C4) senior researcher K. Lalitha has been closed.

“It is both parties’ agreement to stop the proceedings. It is settled and the case is considered closed,” he said in a short response to queries about the withdrawal of his suit.

The MACC chief commissioner filed the suit against Lalitha in 2022 over an allegedly defamatory article published by the Independent News Service (INS) news agency portal related to a purchase of shares.

Azam’s lawyers filed the withdrawal note on June 11.

The note stated that Azam as the plaintiff has discontinued the suit filed on Jan 12, 2022 against the defendant with no order regarding costs and without liberty to file afresh.

The notice of discontinuation also states that the plaintiff has dropped the suit “on the basis of no prejudice and without admission from either party”.

On Jan 12, 2022, Azam filed the lawsuit against Lalitha over her two articles titled Business Ties Among MACC Leadership: How Deep Does it Go? (Part 1) and Business Ties Among MACC Leadership: How Deep Does It Go? (Part 2) on news portal Independent News Service.

The articles, Azam claimed, were drafted, published and republished with malice and mala fide to create a perception for readers to conclude that he was a corrupt civil servant who abused his position as a top-ranking MACC officer for his own interests as well as his brothers.

Azam claimed the defendant had tarnished his good name, reputation and standing due to the publication and republication of the articles, tweets and the lawyer’s media statement.

On Feb 3 the same year, Lalitha filed her statement of defence, claiming that the information shared in her articles and tweets concerning Azam was extracted from confirmed sources.