SINGAPORE — A lawyer acting for national marathoner Soh Rui Yong has sent a letter threatening to sue Singapore Athletics (SA) executive director Syed Abdul Malik Aljunied for defamation unless he agrees to pay compensation and apologise by Friday (Aug 23).

The legal letter to Mr Malik dated Monday — sparked by allegedly defamatory statements made by Mr Malik in a Facebook post on Saturday — is the latest twist in a spat between Mr Soh and the national sports association.

In a separate letter to the SA, also dated Monday, Mr Soh’s lawyer said that his client was willing to hold talks with the SA management to sort out their differences so long as Mr Malik was not present.

Earlier this month, the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) turned down SA’s nomination of Mr Soh to be part of the Singapore team headed for the South-east Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines in November and December. Mr Soh is a two-time SEA Games gold-medal winner.

Mr Soh was upset that SA decided not to appeal against the SNOC decision. SA cited unspecified breaches of its code of conduct by Mr Soh as the reason for its decision. In a back of forth of legal letters, Mr Soh asked the SA to justify its claim that he had breached its code of conduct while the SA proposed a meeting to discuss the situation.

On Saturday, Mr Malik posted a picture of himself with two children on Facebook. In the caption, Mr Malik wrote that he hoped one of the children would take up the 400m hurdles sporting event, and added that they should be “careful” of the marathon as it could “end up messing up your mind and heart”.

Responding to a query by a Facebook user on how marathons could mess up minds and hearts, Mr Malik said it had been observed only in “one particular runner so far”.

“It seemed to have drained him of empathy, compassion, gratitude and the capability to love others,” added Mr Malik in the comment, not naming anyone.

In the letter on Monday to Mr Malik, Mr Soh’s lawyer Clarence Lun of Foxwood LLC said the Facebook comment by Mr Malik could only be taken to refer to Mr Soh.

The comment had also called Mr Soh’s moral character into question, suggesting he was devoid of “empathy, compassion, gratitude and the capability to love others” which was “manifestly untrue”, said Mr Lun.

The legal letter added that the comments had caused “irreparable damage and/ or injury” to Mr Soh’s image and reputation which he has sought to maintain as a professional athlete.

Mr Lun called for Mr Malik to provide a signed undertaking not to publish further statements defamatory of Mr Soh and for Mr Malik to compensate Mr Soh with a sum to be agreed upon or assessed.

Mr Lun also asked Mr Malik to issue a public apology to Mr Soh through The Straits Times.

If these conditions were not met by Aug 23, Mr Lun said that Mr Soh would commence legal proceedings against Mr Malik.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Mr Soh said that he had been considering SA’s proposal to meet to discuss the situation until Mr Malik’s Facebook post on Aug 17.

“Much as I wish to reconcile with SA, I don’t understand how both parties can do so under such circumstances and when people within the association such as Malik are so plainly against me.”

“I have now come to a decision, and am still willing to give it a try to meet SA, but without Malik’s attendance,” Mr Soh added.

TODAY has sought comment from Mr Malik.