Dr Zakir launches legal action against DAP’s Ramasamy
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Controversial Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik has issued a formal demand for Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy to apologise for allegedly slandering him in public statements.
His lawyers, Messrs Akberdin & Co, sent the letter dated October 17 to Ramasamy demanding a full retraction of the allegedly defamatory statements within 14 days.
The court documents sighted by Malay Mail did not specify, however, the statement or statements that Dr Zakir wanted Ramasamy to retract.
Dr Zakir further demanded that the DAP leader publish the apology in seven specific news outlets and refrain from repeating the offending remarks.
In August, Dr Zakir told Ramasamy to apologise over remarks he made against the preacher in an article entitled “Naik should not question loyalty of Hindus in Malaysia”.
The DAP leader rejected this by saying, “The word apology, in so far Zakir Naik is concerned, is not in my vocabulary”.
The India-born preacher with permanent resident status here caused a controversy in August by suggesting that the Indian community in Malaysia were disloyal to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Over a hundred police reports were lodged against him and he was briefly investigated by the police before being supposedly prohibited from making further public comments.
Dr Zakir is wanted in India on charges of money laundering and incitement.
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