Tajuddin counterclaims for RM500m

Ex-Malaysian Airlines (MAS) chairperson Tajuddin Ramli has filed a RM500 million defamation suit against the national carrier as a counterclaim to a suit that the company has filed against him.

In his application, Tajuddin (left) alleged that the company's Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) report against him was defamatory.

He added that MAS has allegedly instructed its lawyers to make additional complaints to the MACC Advisory Board and the MACC special committee on corruption.

Furthermore, Tajuddin also claimed that MAS was involved in the publication of several damaging articles against him that appeared in the Malaysia Today blog.

The counterclaim filed on Sept 3 was disclosed in a statement by MAS to Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

Along with the counterclaim, Tajuddin has also filed his statement of defence over a 2006 suit brought by MAS on him and three others.

When contacted, Tajuddin's lawyer Lim Kian Leong confirmed that the counterclaim has been filed but refused to divulge its details.

MAS wants trial expedited

In MAS' statement to Bursa Malaysia, the company says that it has instructed its solicitors Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill to have the matter fixed for trial as soon as possible.

This was to avoid further interlocutory proceedings that have already been delayed for four years.

In 2006, MAS and its subsidiary Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd, filed a RM174 million suit against Tajuddin - and its former vice-president (cargo) Ralph Manfred Gotz, former consultant Uwe Juergen Beck and former director Wan Aishah Wan Hamid at the Shah Alam High Court - for various breaches of fiduciary and statutory duties and for defrauding MAS.

The company claims that the four were responsible for MAS being ordered to pay an award granted by the International Court of Arbitration involving German company ACL Advanced Cargo Logistics GmbH.

Sometime in 2004, ACL had initiated arbitration proceedings against MAS that concluded with the Arbitral Tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce in 2009 ordering MAS to pay 6.9 million euros in damages, in favour of ACL.

The breach of contract involved MAS' failure to maintain its European cargo hub at the Frankfurt-Hahn airport for 10 years as contracted.

MAS in its statement added that the Shah Alam High Court on Aug 23, 2010 dismissed Tajuddin and Wan Aishah's bid to strike out the suit.
Malaysiakini