KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 29): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is looking into the possibility of settling his defamation suit against former Umno supreme council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam.
This follows the scheduled inter-partes hearing of Ismail Sabri's injunction against Lokman which was scheduled for Tuesday (Nov 29) before High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh having been deferred.
Ismail Sabri’s counsel Ragunath Kesavan told theedgemarkets.com when contacted that the hearing had been deferred to Jan 5, 2023, pending a proposed settlement.
Ismail Sabri, 62, filed the suit against Lokman on Sept 8 through Messrs Kesavan, and on Sept 12, he also obtained an ex-parte injunction to take down the video.
This is over a video Lokman posted titled “Bila Presiden Umno panggil tak dating! Tapi PM ada masa jumpa Mahathir” (When the Umno president called [to meet] him, he did not come! However, he had time to see Mahathir).
In his statement of claim, Ismail Sabri, an Umno vice-president who retained his Bera parliamentary seat in the 15th general election, alleged that the statement made by Lokman — that he conspired with former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to “fix” ex-PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak — was not only false, but also defamatory, and mala fide (made in bad faith).
He said the statement made in the video was false, as he never met Mahathir on Aug 22, or any days surrounding it.
Ismail Sabri also complained that the words uttered by Lokman also meant that he was insincere, cunning, and only had his self-interests in mind to maintain his post as the PM, and that he was insincere to Umno.
The words, Ismail Sabri averrred, also meant that he was a traitor for allegedly conspiring with Mahathir and other political parties that were against Umno, so that he remained as the PM. Ismail Sabri also claimed that the allegation that he had offered Mahathir’s son, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, the deputy prime ministership in return for getting Mahathir's support was also defamatory.
Ismail Sabri said the words alleged by Lokman also meant that he was cruel, tyrannical and evil.
The 59-year-old Lokman filed a counterclaim earlier this month, where he claimed that he had deleted the video that allegedly defamed Ismail Sabri on his social media accounts as ordered by the court, but in turn claimed that he had suffered losses in terms of income that could have been obtained from the video, and hence he is seeking general damages, interest and costs.
In the counterclaim and defence, Lokman denied that the video had defamed the former PM, and said that it was not produced with malicious intent.