Suit against Anwar’s aide goes to trial Thursday

The defamation suit filed by Muhammed Yusoff Rawther against Anwar Ibrahim’s press secretary Tunku Nashrul Tunku Abaidah will be decided through a hearing at the Shah Alam Sessions Court which starts on Thursday.

The trial meanwhile will begin if both parties fail to reach an agreement for the case to be settled through mediation, Yusoff’s lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla said.

He said the hearing would last for half a day, from 9am to 12 noon with Yusoff, the plaintiff, as the first witness.

“There are other witnesses but I cannot reveal them now,” he told MalaysiaNow.

“The only witness for the hearing on Thursday is Yusoff.”

MalaysiaNow reported on July 15 that Yusoff had filed a defamation suit against Nashrul as well as a separate civil suit against Anwar’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, claiming compensation for injuries allegedly sustained after an assault.

Yusoff, Anwar’s former research assistant, also filed a suit against the PKR president accusing him of sexually assaulting him 10 days before the opposition leader won the Port Dickson by-election on Oct 13, 2018.

Yusoff claimed to have suffered serious physical, psychological and social trauma as a result of the incident.

Anwar however denied the claims, saying they had been fabricated in cahoots with a “person or persons currently unknown” as part of a plan to smear his political image ahead of the PKR congress in December 2019 as well as the promised transition of power from Dr Mahathir Mohamad.