Addendum War Zaid Raps Azalina Over Aide S Police Report Against Kj

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Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim has criticised his successor Azalina Othman Said over a police report lodged against Khairy Jamaluddin regarding his comments on the royal addendum saga.
Zaid said Khairy is entitled to the freedom of speech and his comments were not criminal.
“Why lodge a police report? There is nothing that Khairy said constituted an offence.
“Many people share that view. I am sure he made that opinion in good faith. He is a responsible citizen entitled to an opinion on the matter. Free speech, ok,” he added in a social media post.
‘Conspiracy’
Zaid was responding to Azalina’s political secretary Suraya Yaacob lodging a report against Khairy, a former health minister turned podcast host.
Khairy JamaluddinShe said the action was taken based on an article in a news portal which reported that Khairy claimed Azalina conspired to conceal the addendum related to the imprisoned former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s house arrest.
Describing the allegation as baseless, she said: “The statement also implies that Azalina knowingly assisted, supported, or allowed unlawful actions to take place.”
“Furthermore, the Legal Affairs Division, in a statement on Friday, also confirmed that Azalina is neither a member of the Pardons Board nor involved in any administrative matters related to the pardon of any prisoner,” she was quoted as saying by Sinar Harian.
Suraya urged the police to investigate Khairy, a former Umno Youth chief, for defamation under Section 499 of the Penal Code.
‘Just sue KJ instead’
However, Zaid argued that if Azalina felt the statements had tarnished her reputation, she could sue Khairy for defamation instead.
“There is no need to be so high-handed and call the police on a former minister who has shown remarkable restraint in his comments about the minister’s handling of the addendum.
“For public benefit, conspiracy requires more than one minister to be involved in overt concealment or hiding,” he added.
MMinister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman SaidIn his latest Keluar Sekejap podcast, Khairy accused Azalina, who is the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), of being complicit in concealing the addendum.
“The letter - the addendum - was submitted to the attorney-general (AG). There’s no way the AG didn’t inform the direct line minister, who is the law minister,” he asserted.
When podcast co-host Shahril Hamdan noted Azalina’s claim in Parliament that the AG had not reported to her, Khairy retorted sarcastically, “Malaysians are not born yesterday.”
On Monday (Jan 6), the Court of Appeal allowed Najib to seek a judicial review to enforce a decree by the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong, ordering the former Umno president to serve the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest.
The Pahang palace has also confirmed the existence of the royal addendum following an affidavit filed by Najib’s son, Nizar, on Dec 5.
Another police report
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territories) Dr Zaliha Mustafa’s political secretary Nor Azrina Surip also lodged a police report against Khairy.
This is over the former minister’s alleged slanderous statement stemming from a three-minute and 14-second video shared in a WhatsApp group, which claimed that Zaliha should have been aware of the document’s existence.
“Zaliha issued a statement yesterday, clarifying that she had never seen the document in question,” Bernama reported Nor Azrina as saying. - Mkini

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