Tuesday 19 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament (MP) Tony Pua Kiam Wee has filed an application to strike out a defamation suit by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak against the opposition leader’s speech at a DAP fundraising dinner last year.

Pua’s lawyer Alliff Benjamin said the main ground of the application is that Najib lacks the capacity to bring the action.

“As prime minister, Najib does not have the locus standi because he must be prepared to accept criticism,” he told The Malaysian Insider, after case management before High Court deputy registrar Pavani Kasi yesterday.

Alliff said the application was filed last Friday and a copy of the court papers was served on Messrs Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak, the solicitors for Najib.

He said the next case management session is fixed on June 17, when the court is expected to schedule the date to hear the application to strike out the case.

The prime minister, who filed the suit on March 6 last year, also named Mediarakyat portal owner Chan Chee Keong as second defendant.

Both were sued over comments by Pua on strategic investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

In the suit, Najib said that the recording of the speech, which was uploaded by Chan or his agents to Mediarakyat’s YouTube and Facebook pages, was later republished by Pua on his Facebook page.

Najib is seeking an apology, a retraction of the statement and damages.

He is also seeking an injunction to restrain Pua from further publishing any defamatory statements about him.

Najib had earlier sent a letter of demand to Pua to apologise within 14 days in two national newspapers, or face legal action over the speech entitled “Tony Pua: Najib is creating the biggest scandal ever in the history of Malaysia”.

In his defence, Pua said he had a duty as the people’s representative to raise issues of public interest.

“It is my legal, social and moral duty to raise issues of public interest,” said Pua, citing qualified privilege as one of his grounds of defence in response to Najib’s suit.

The opposition party’s national publicity chief also said that the public has the right to receive information on issues that affect them.

“As an MP, I made a fair comment on a matter of public interest, based on verified information and facts,” he said in court documents sighted by The Malaysian Insider.

In the first case of a prime minister suing a lawmaker for defamation in Malaysia, Pua is also relying on the defence of justification and said the information revealed to the public on 1MDB was true.

Chan filed his defence on March 31.

The suit will be heard before judge Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera. — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 12, 2015.

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