KUALA LUMPUR – Former Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Lokman Adam has been issued a gag order by the high court here this morning after Judicial Commissioner Datuk Mohd Arief Emran Ariffin granted an injunction order against him in a RM50 million suit filed by lawyer Rosli Dahlan.
Lokman had allegedly defamed Rosli by accusing him of receiving 10%, amounting to RM1.7 billion, in legal fees from the Goldman Sachs settlement of RM17 billion in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd case.
Lokman also alleged that Rosli had used the fees to give RM500 million in kickbacks to Bersatu.
In a statement on March 26, 1MDB had issued a statement that lawyers working on the case are paid based on pre-agreed hourly rates and not on commission or success.
The same day, Rosli’s legal firm demanded Lokman cease and desist from posting videos that Rosli described as totally false and highly defamatory.
After a letter of demand was issued to Lokman, one of the videos was deleted, a move that Rosli said constituted to an admission of the falsehoods posted by the former.
However, Rosli said Lokman had failed to remove a second video from his social media account that had repeated the libel.
As such, Rosli is claiming RM50 million in aggravated and exemplary damages.
In his affidavit, Rosli said that Lokman had reached out to him to seek a settlement and waiver of the claim for compensation.
However, Lokman did not fulfil his promise to apologise via a similar video, and had failed to turn up at Rosli’s office to offer him a personal apology.
Rosli’s affidavit also stated that Lokman has a long history and penchant for making false accusations and propogating fake news in his pursuit of cheap publicity.
Rosli was represented by Datuk D.P. Naban and Joseph Wong of Messrs Rosli Dahlan Saravana during the hearing this morning.
In a related development, Centre to Combat Cronyism and Corruption (C4), headed by its executive director Cynthia Gabriel, has asked its lawyers to inform Rosli that it had deleted the Facebook and Twitter posts that had alleged that Rosli had siphoned off some of 1MDB’s settlement money.
In the letter, Datuk Gurdial Singh Nijhar, representing C4, stated the group had had no intention to defame Rosli and had sought a meeting to discuss Rosli’s demands, to which C4 will accede to. – The Vibes, April 5, 2021
Court issues Lokman Adam gag order in 1MDB lawyer’s defamation case
Rosli Dahlan seeking RM50 million from Umno man
Updated 5 years ago · Published on 05 Apr 2021 3:45PM
