Rahim filed the suit on Sept 17.

The suit also names DAP national chairman Tan Kok Wai, deputy chairman Gobind Singh Deo and secretary-general Lim Guan Eng as defendants.

In his statement of claim, Rahim alleged that Khoo, who is Kota Melaka MP, had written, published and/or caused an article to be published, with defamatory words linking him to various scandals, on his Facebook page, DAP website, and The Star’s news portal.

He also claimed that Tan, Gobind and Lim had published and/or caused the article to be published on the party’s website until it can be accessed and shared in blogs, forums and portals without limitations.

Rahim claimed that the alleged defamatory words had described him as, among others, corrupt, involved in sexual crimes, abuse of power and malpractice, which he said were untrue, baseless and published with malicious intent.

According to the plaintiff, who resigned as the Melaka chief minister in October 1994, the allegations and insinuations had benefitted the first defendant as a politician but, at the same time caused maximum damage to his reputation.

Rahim alleged that although he had, via his lawyer, demanded that Khoo retract the article and apologise in a letter dated Feb 18, 2019, the first defendant refused to do so and even challenged him to file the suit.

However, Rahim said The Star newspaper had published a statement on July 27, 2019, under the headline “Sorry, Rahim Thamby Chik is not father of scandals” to apologise to him over the article.

Rahim seeks a published written apology, damages, and the removal of the article from Facebook and the DAP website.

Case management has been set for next Monday by e-review before High Court deputy registrar Idamasliza Maarof.