KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 27): Former Attorney General (AG) Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, who had filed a RM10 million defamation suit against Iskandar Puteri Member of Parliament Lim Kit Siang, has filed an application to strike out or remove certain portions of the politician's defence.

For this reason, High Court judge Datuk Azimah Omar has fixed Nov 18 to hear Apandi's application to remove certain portions of Lim's defence.

Apandi's lawyer M Visvanathan told this to theedgemarkets.com when contacted today after case management of the matter was done via e-review online before senior assistant registrar Idamasliza Maarof.

Apandi, 69, who was also formerly a Federal Court judge before his appointment as the AG in 2015 — during Datuk Seri Najib Razak's tenure as prime minister — had filed the suit against the DAP veteran leader and is seeking RM10 million in general, aggravated and exemplary damages against Lim for causing the allegedly defamatory article to be published in news portal Malaysiakini.

The former AG is also seeking an injunction to prevent or stop Lim from publishing or causing the publishing of the said article or any content in an article, which has a negative effect on him.

Apandi's suit centres on an article by Lim published in Malaysiakini, titled "Dangerous fallacy to think Malaysia's on the road to integrity" on May 6.

It claims Lim had deliberately or indirectly implied that Apandi was involved in criminal activities, is someone who is unethical, immoral, incompetent, and lacked responsibility, knowledge, expertise and other professional ethics to hold the post of AG at the material time.

Apart from this, Apandi claims Lim's remark also implied that he had abused or neglected his duties and responsibilities as the AG, and practised double standards in the execution of his duties and responsibilities, especially as AG at the material time and as an individual in general.

The former government chief legal adviser was appointed as AG in July 2015.

He was removed from office after the Pakatan Harapan government was voted into power last year.

He claimed that the defamatory words contained in the article are incorrect, a lie, and also a serious libel against him.

"The words in the article when read collectively and/or separately and/or read within the context of the published and published article are not justified at all," he added.

He described the news portal as influential with a huge following, and the content of the article is now known to many people or all of Malaysian society.