BERNAMA
1/3/2021
KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today obtained an interim injunction to restrain UMNO Supreme Council member Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi from republishing allegedly defamatory statements over quarantine order involving the prime minister on his (Mohd Puad) Facebook page.
Muhyiddin’s lawyer Rosli Dahlan said High Court judge Datuk Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril allowed the ex-parte application by Muhyiddin this afternoon in the presence of his two other lawyers, Datuk D.P. Naban and Louis Liaw.
“The writ of summons was filed this morning with a certificate of urgency to hear a notice of application for interim injunction. The High Court Judge granted an interim injunction pending disposal of the inter-parte hearing which was fixed on March 12,” he told Bernama via WhatsApp message.
In his ex-parte application filed with the writ of summons today, Muhyiddin applied for an injunction order to restrain Mohd Puad as the defendant, or his agent, representative or anyone from re-publishing, re-posting and re-sharing the allegedly defamatory statements on Mohd Puad’s Facebook page.
Muhyiddin filed the application on grounds that the statements by Mohd Puad are false, defamatory and had tarnished the reputation and the good name of the prime minister locally and internationally.
Muhyiddin said the ex-parte application was needed because if a notice was served to the defendant, there would be a risk that the defendant would sensationalise the application which would result in his readers sharing the post.
Meanwhile, Muhyiddin who filed the writ of summons and statement of claims through Messrs Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership in his personal capacity, claimed that on Feb 9, Mohd Puad had published a post on his Facebook page under the name of “DrPuad Zarkashi” with the title e“Kuarantin pun ada dua darjat?”.
Muhyiddin claimed that the post could be accessed by Internet users across the world and had received 1,200 reactions, 215 comments and 182 shares.
He claimed that the post referred to “PM” which is an abbreviation for the Prime Minister and that the post contained untrue, unwarranted, unsubstantiated and mischievous remarks against him and have defamed him.
Muhyiddin claimed that the statements implied that he and his entourage had refused to undergo quarantine for 10 days upon their return from their official trip to Jakarta, Indonesia.
