Photo by Zahid Izzani/The Edge

KUALA LUMPUR (May 29): Former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin reached an amicable settlement in a defamation suit against Umno's Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi, after an agreed statement was read out by the defendant in the High Court here.

Judge Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz recorded the settlement by the two politicians in open court on Wednesday.

Puad read the agreed statement in court to Muhyiddin, who was also in attendance. Both men then shook hands.

In the case that was initiated in 2021, the Perikatan Nasional chairman sued Puad for defaming him in a Facebook post, and obtained an interim injunction. Following that, Puad removed the posting from all his social media accounts.

The settlement also required Puad to post the agreed statement on his Facebook page and social media. Other terms of the settlement were kept confidential.

In his statement, Puad admitted to making the Facebook post, and stated that he had deleted the Facebook post and regretted all the inconvenience caused to Muhyiddin.

This brings to conclusion the defamation suit, and the trial dates were ordered to be vacated.

Muhyiddin was represented by Rosli Dahlan and Bahari Yeow from Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership, while Puad was represented by Mohd Shahril Madisa from Shahrul Hamidi & Haziq.

Muhyiddin, 77, filed the suit over Puad’s Facebook posting titled "there are two levels of quarantine in 2021", which implied that the former prime minister refused to be quarantined after his official visit to Jakarta that year, and that was the reason the then health minister issued a new order via a federal gazette that Cabinet ministers who returned from official visits abroad only needed to undergo three days of quarantine.

The Pagoh Member of Parliament claimed that the Facebook posting meant that he had abused his power as the then prime minister to obtain preferential treatment under the law, or under the movement control order.