KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 3): Datuk Seri Najib Razak (pictured) has been told to file his defence by Feb 17 in a libel suit that former health minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad has brought against him at the High Court here.
In announcing this during case management of the suit on Thursday (Feb 3), High Court senior assistant registrar Nurul Izzah Hasan Basri also directed Dzukefly's lawyers from Messrs Farida & Company to file a reply to the former prime minister's (PM) defence by March 3. She also fixed March 4 for further case management.
It was reported earlier on the same day that the former health minister had filed the RM5 million libel suit against Najib over the latter's Facebook posting, which alleged that the Kuala Selangor Member of Parliament had practised nepotism that saw the appointment of his (Dzulkefly's) daughter Nurul Iman as a board member of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia in 2019.
The suit was filed on Dec 31, 2021 by the firm Messrs Farida & Company.
Dzulkefly, in his statement of claim sighted by theedgemarkets.com, alleged that Najib defamed him with the allegations made by the ex-PM in an Aug 24, 2020 Facebook posting, which Dzulkefly said had been reported by a Malay daily.
While the Kuala Selangor lawmaker had denied the allegations of nepotism, which he noted had been widely reported by the media, he said the posting made by Najib was still on his Facebook page as of November 2021.
Dzulkefly said he had sent a notice of demand through his lawyers to Najib in January 2021, to which Najib's legal representative responded in February, explaining that the latter had done nothing wrong, which prompted this lawsuit.
Dzulkefly also claimed that Nurul Iman's appointment was made before he became a minister in the Pakatan Harapan government, and that she was reappointed or retained for the post early last year.
“Najib with malice and mala fide libellously made the allegations without verification, resulting in his posting to be shared 970 times by his followers.
“That Facebook post was edited six times after that and this shows that he planned the publication in defaming me,” the former health minister said in his statement of claim.
As per the statement of claim, Najib's Facebook post had garnered about 15,000 reactions, with 12,000 likes, followed by 2,400 (haha), 106 (wow), 65 (love), 25 (angry), four (sad) and 11 (care).
Najib, in response to the suit being filed, has denied having defamed Dzulkefly.