SHAH ALAM - Tanah Merah Member of Parliament (MP) Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz had filed a police report against the Prime Minister's photographer.
The photographer had claimed that Ikmal was smoking an electronic cigarette or vape in the Dewan Rakyat last Tuesday.
While describing Sadiq Ashraf's act of uploading the picture on X as malicious and slanderous, the former Defence Deputy Minister claimed that the photo dissemination was politically motivated and thus affected his image as an MP from Perikatan Nasional (PN).
"For your information, I had also received a letter from the Dewan Rakyat Secretary's Office asking me to provide an explanation to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker (Tan Sri Johari Abdul) with regards to the photo.
"I have absolutely no problem with giving an explanation, but at the same time, I am asking for a favour from the Speaker to also examine the surveillance recording of the Dewan Rakyat to find out the real situation.
"Besides that, I would also like to ask the Dewan Rakyat Speaker to ask Sadiq Ashraf who was responsible for taking the photo to hand over to the Speaker all the photos of me that he had taken at that time.
"I am sure and believe that he took some pictures when I was walking out, but he deliberately displayed the picture from a single angle to make it seem as if I was smoking a vape," he said in a statement today.
In the meantime, Ikmal said that the legal action was taken to demand Sadiq to make an apology for his actions which has affected his reputation on social media.
Ikmal even challenged any party who accused him of being a smoker to prove the claims by showing an image of him smoking over the last 30 years.
"My challenge does not mean to be childish or express arrogance, but it is to prove that I will not compromise with the politics of defamation as done by Sadiq Ashraf'," he said