Musa read out his apology at the Shah Alam High Court today and agreed to pay RM10,000 in costs over accusations of abuse of power which Musa made against Phang in a press conference in 2012.
“I admit that the statements were defamatory of the plaintiff and fully regret the statements,” Musa said in his apology.
Musa had accused Phang of transferring a senior police officer using his influence in order to speed up the deployment of a project backed by him.
This is the second time in two years that Musa has had to tender an apology in court over statements made in the same press conference in later 2012.
Last year, he had to apologise to former Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CID) chief Ramli Yusuff, also at the Shah Alam High Court, for claiming that political figures were backing Ramli in Ramli’s war of words with Musa.
In 2012, upon joining crimewatch NGO MyWatch, he made a raft of allegations in his maiden press conference, and the allegations were later termed as ‘copgate’.
Phang, in an immediate response, said that he felt “vindicated” by the apology.
“Let this serve as a lesson to all that it does not pay to libel anyone. Reputation is a very hardearned commodity and the preservation is arduous and tortuous,” Phang said.
Lawyers Sankara Nair, Muralidharan Kalidass and Lee Wing Hong acted as counsel for Phang, while Abdul Aziz Abd Rahman, Rabinder Singh, and S Selvarajah represented Musa.
Justice Rozana Ali Yusoff presided.
Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/282129
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