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KUALA LUMPUR: The hearing of the lawsuit of the former attorney general (AG) Mohamed Apandi Ali against the supreme of the DAP, Lim Kit Siang, has been set for five days starting from April 5 of next year.
High Court Judge Azimah Omar set the new dates for today’s hearing after attorney M Visvanathan, who represents Apandi, told the court that Lim could not be present in court because he had traveled to Sabah and now he was in quarantine.
Then the judge proposed that the witnesses, summoned by Apandi for the case, testify first, since the court had initially set the hearing for this week.
However, Lim’s attorney, Rayveni Asogan, said his client wanted to be present in court and hear testimony from witnesses.
“It’s fair to us,” he said.
Azimah then ordered Rayveni to present Lim’s witness statement and Visvanathan to submit the proposed questions for the witnesses by January 26.
Apandi filed the lawsuit against Lim last year over Lim’s claim that he aided and instigated the 1MDB scandal.
He claimed that Lim had written a defamatory article, entitled “Dangerous Fallacy of Thinking Malaysia is on the Road to Integrity”, which was posted on a news portal.
He argued that the article implied that he had been involved in a crime and described him as a person without integrity.
Apandi is seeking RM10 million in general damages and additional compensation for aggravated and exemplary damages and other repairs the court deems necessary, including 5% interest.
He had previously cleared former Prime Minister Najib Razak of wrongdoing in the 1MDB and SRC International cases.
Najib was charged with money laundering, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust in 2018. He was convicted of the charges related to SRC International in July.
