Mositun unperturbed by defamation lawsuit
PAPAR: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) secretary general Datuk Johnny Mositun is unperturbed by a defamation lawsuit against him by Parti Solidariti Tanah AirKu (STAR) information chief Jeffrey Kumin.
Mositun, in his statement yesterday, said this in response to a local newspaper report that Kumin had filed his suit for libel through Messrs Nurul Rafeeqa Marcel Advocates at the Sessions Court here on Thursday.
The plaintiff is seeking damages, including exemplary damages, an injunction to restrain the defendant or his servants from further publishing the libel upon the plaintiff or STAR, statutory interest, costs and any other relief deemed fit by the Court.
The suit has been fixed for hearing on July 31.
“I have yet to receive notice of the suit and the details therein so I’d rather wait before commenting, but I will say I am not at all perturbed, rather, I am more amused by what was reported in the newspapers about his charges against me. To me they are frivolous and contentious, without any substance,” he said.
Mositun said it was Kumin himself who started it all by making disparaging and highly contentious comments against him and PBS over a PBS dinner and dialogue in Sandakan a few months ago to which he(Mositun) had responded in defence of his party in his capacity as secretary general.
“My press statement is there for all to see. There was nothing libellous in it. And where can you find the words illiterate, uneducated or incapable in that statement? All else in my statement was fair comment and par for course in rebutting his criticisms and unfounded claims about PBS. If he reads things into my response that are not there it’s too bad,” Mositun said.
Kumin, 50, said the statement by Mositun in an article on May 27 this year under the heading “99% of STAR candidates to lose deposits” were understood to mean that he was an inexperienced political rookie and had no public or political credentials or experience, among others.
He sought damages, including exemplary damages from the defendant, an injunction to restrain the defendant whether by himself or by his servants including the officers or members of PBS from further publishing the said libel or any similar libel upon the plaintiff or STAR, statutory interest and costs.