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KUALA LUMPUR – Former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is taking legal action on defamatory claims alleging that he had recently met up with Perikatan Nasional (PN) leader Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.
According to Malaysiakini, Ismail Sabri has since ordered his lawyers to initiate legal measures against such rumours, which are believed to have begun circulating following the Umno vice-president’s absence from the party’s Supreme Council meeting on December 8.
“If you want to slander people, let’s be reasonable. The immigration record should show that I didn’t leave the country. It means I am in the country,” Ismail Sabri, who is also Bera MP, was quoted as saying.
“I have already instructed my lawyer to take legal action against the slanderers.”
He clarified that at noon on December 8, he enjoyed a banana rice meal with a veteran journalist before attending the opening ceremony for Rainforest Challenge International in Bera, Pahang later that evening.
Ismail Sabri had posted his lunch details on his Instagram. The veteran journalist in question happens to be PETRA News Editor-in-Chief Terence Fernandez
After Ismail Sabri’s no-show at the Umno Supreme Council meeting, a message by an unidentified individual claiming that the Bera MP is “planning something” through a “Jakarta move” involving Muhyiddin had made the rounds on social media.
Besides Ismail Sabri, fellow Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid was also missing from the party’s Supreme Council meeting that night.
The sole vice-president who had shown up for the meeting, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, told reporters then that Ismail Sabri had “another event to attend”. – The Vibes, December 14, 2022