Sarawak Report will be filing police reports against Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan and former journalist Lester Melanyi for criminal defamation.
The whistleblower site will also be suing Rahman, the New Straits Times and others whom it deems to have defamed Sarawak Report .
"We are consulting our lawyers with a view to reporting Rahman ( photo ) to the Malaysian police and also issuing libel proceedings against him and other parties, including the New Straits Times and other publications, which have deliberately promoted falsehoods designed to damage the credibility of Sarawak Report .
"We will also report Lester's vicious criminal libel to the local police (he’s not worth suing) and we warn him and anyone who continues to promote his present and future made-up stories that we will seek appropriate damages," Sarawak Report wrote on its site.
The legal action follows Rahman's endorsement of Lester, who has confessed to being privy to a plot by Sarawak Report to fabricate evidence against 1MDB.
Among others, Lester who claims to have been a Sarawak Report editor, said the site's editor-in-chief Clare Rewcastle-Brown had worked with a British graphic designer to falsify 1MDB documents.
Rahman said Lester's confessions was proof of attempts to undermine Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is implicated in the 1MDB scandal.
Articles closely researched, substantiated
Sarawak Report has denied that Lester ( photo ) worked for them, and said that his allegations , perpetuated by Rahman and mainstream media, had gone too far.
"All our articles have been closely researched and substantiated.
"Moreover, numerous other publications have supported our findings and repeated our conclusions in the global media.
"Rahman has not produced a single shred of evidence that would lead anyone to believe the ravings of the mentally unbalanced bankrupt, Lester," the whistleblower site said.
On Monday night, Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said he would be issuing a letter of demand to Lester following a video recording by Lester that claimed the irregularities on 1MDB were faked, and implicating the DAP lawmaker.
Pua added that he would also sue anyone who repeated Lester's allegations.
However, checks with the Insolvency Department show that it might be difficult to sue Lester, as he is currently a bankrupt.
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