Court gags Sanusi from touching on Anwar's morals

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has obtained an interim injunction from the Alor Setar High Court to prevent Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor from issuing, repeating, and publishing defamatory statements against him on social media, websites, and any other platforms.

Lawyer S N Nair, representing the prime minister, said judge Mahazan Mat Taib allowed the ex-parte (one-sided) application filed by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman yesterday.

"The injunction was issued to prevent the defendant (Sanusi), his staff, or agents from repeating or publishing similar statements that portray the plaintiff (Anwar) either directly or indirectly in any of the defendant's social media channels, websites, or other platforms.

"The defendant is required to comply with this ex-parte injunction immediately after the delivery of this order to the defendant," said Nair when contacted today.

Anwar, 75, applied for an injunction in his lawsuit against Sanusi over the menteri besar's alleged defamatory statements, which were uttered during the Jelajah PN Best Tambun election campaign last year.

Nair said Anwar applied for the injunction after Sanusi repeated similar defamatory utterances and statements that allegedly insinuated that the PKR president was "immoral" in two ceramahs (political talks) recently, which were at the Jelajah PN Best Negeri Sembilan in Nilai on March 18 and the Jelajah Selangor Baharu-Selayang in Selayang, Selangor, on July 11.

According to him, the injunction order was served to Sanusi's lawyer at 12.30pm today.

He said Sanusi had been given a stern warning to comply with the terms of the interim injunction order and would be subject to legal action if he failed to do so.

Anwar, 75, filed the suit against Sanusi, 48, on Dec 13 last year over the Kedah menteri besar's speech during an election campaign in Negeri Sembilan, accusing the PH chairman of immoral behaviour.

Anwar, in his statement of claim, stated that the slanderous statements meant that he had obtained a royal pardon through fraud, remained unforgiven, and had deceived the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

He said it also meant that he is a liar, untrustworthy, unethical, and has betrayed the people's mandate, and that the statements were made with malicious intent aimed at inciting the public and creating personal hatred towards him and PH during the campaign period for the 15th general election, which was held on Nov 19 last year.

Sanusi, in his defence statement, said that he had no malicious intent and did not slander Anwar, but was merely criticising him.