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KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court ordered a social media user who is involved in a defamation lawsuit brought by FashionValet co-founder and entrepreneur Datin Vivy Yusof to present his defense statement within 14 days.
Lawyer Mohd Syakirin Shazwan, representing the 28-year-old defendant, told the media this after Judge Rohani Ismail’s handling of the case here on Wednesday (October 7).
“The lawsuit has been served on the defendant, and therefore the court has ordered us to present our defense statement within 14 days from today,” he said when meeting after the process ended.
Syakirin also said that the defendant had filed an appearance memorandum on Monday (October 5) and delivered it to Vivy’s attorney.
Vivy was represented by attorney Pauling Hee.
The case has been settled for further case management on January 4 of next year.
On June 15, Vivy sued the defendant for allegedly defaming her on social media in connection with government financial relief for groups B40 and M40.
The 33-year-old fashion icon filed the suit through the law firm Messrs Foong Cheng Leong & Co.
In her claim statement, Vivy said that she posted an “IGTV” video on her Instagram account of a conversation between four entrepreneurs.
The conversation covered the economic state during the pandemic, the movement control order and the economic stimulus package announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
The video was later censored by her Instagram followers and she deleted it a few hours after its publication.
Vivy claimed that the defendant, on the latter’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, made statements that wrongly accused her of questioning the government’s initiative to provide aid to groups B40 and M40 when they were not making contributions to the country.
She claimed that she had never uttered words that questioned the government’s initiative and the defendant’s alleged defamatory statements were intended to say that she had insulted and belittled the two groups, that she was not understanding and that she did not care about those affected by Covid-19.
Vivy further claimed that the statements published by the defendant were made maliciously and had gone viral on social media.
As a result, he stated that his personal and professional reputation as a member of the board of directors of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) was seriously affected.
She also claimed that the defendant’s statements had caused other Internet users to insult, attack, censor and openly condemn her.
On April 2, the plaintiff said that a demand letter was issued to the defendant, where one of the demands was that the defendant stop posting defamatory statements against her on social media.
Vivy claimed that the defendant had responded to the letter via Facebook, but did not comply with all the demands.
Aside from general, aggravated and exemplary damages, Vivy seeks a court order for the defendant to withdraw the statements and issue an apology.
It also seeks interest, costs, and other compensation that the court deems appropriate.
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