SHAH ALAM - Pandan Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli clarified that neither he nor his lawyer has received any court documents related to the lawsuit filed by businessman Datuk Seri Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.
He said they only learned about the legal action through media reports stating that Farhash had filed a lawsuit against him over two videos allegedly damaging the businessman’s reputation.
“My lawyer and I have not received the writ of summons; we only found out about it from the news. Normally, such legal action would be formally served and notified to the person being sued.
“Therefore, my lawyer will deal with it once we receive the summons,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Earlier, Farhash, who was formerly the political secretary to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, filed a defamation suit against the former Economy Minister over two videos recently uploaded on social media.
According to a news report by The Edge, the lawsuit was filed on Oct 10 through the law firm Messrs Ahmad Deniel, Ruben & Co after Rafizi allegedly failed to apologise for posting the two defamatory videos.
The first video was uploaded on July 25, while the second was posted on Aug 20.
Rafizi said this latest case marks the 17th court case he has faced since becoming a politician.
“When you’re sued, it naturally adds to your burden because you have to pay legal fees and spend time preparing case arguments. Trials also take a long time,” he said.
However, Rafizi said he views the court process as an opportunity to present arguments within the legal framework and to use the legal system to obtain information and summon witnesses.
“If the witnesses that need to be called include ministers or the Prime Minister, we will file a request in court to summon them. The rest, we leave to Allah SWT,” he said.