Blogger to submit video in Rais suit

KOTA KINABALU: Controversial author and blogger Abdul Mutalib Mohamed Daud is preparing a video clip to use in his defence in a suit brought by Minister of Information, Communications and Culture Rais Yatim, according to the Sabahkini website.

Rais accuses Abdul Mutalib of defaming him in four articles that referred to allegations that he raped an Indonesian woman working for him in 2007. The articles appeared in Sabahkini.

Sabahkini also quoted the author as saying he would not remove the articles, as Rais has demanded.

“I only reported what was stated by the victim and her family,” Sabahkini’s Jakarta correspondent Vivien Sakuntala quoted Abdul Mutalib as saying in an email in response to Rais’s filing of the suit.

“Does Rais want to shoot the messenger?”

Sakuntala said Abdul Mutalib was currently overseas writing a new book entitled Skandal Seks VVIP and preparing a video that he would submit as part of his defence in the suit. The report did not give any other detail about the video.

It is believed that he is in Indonesia.

Sakuntala also reported that Abdul Mutalib would not reveal whom his new book would be about. He is the author of more than 20 books, including YB and VIP, which are both about sex scandals involving public figures.

Rais, in his statement of claim, said Abdul Mutalib’s articles contained false words which were malicious and implied he was of unchaste behaviour and loose morals.

He is also seeking an injunction compelling the defendant to remove the defamatory articles.

High Court judge Amelia Tee Abdullah has scheduled case management for May 6.