The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today dismissed applications
by inspector-general of Police Khalid Abu Bakar and Rural and Regional
Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to strike out a defamation suit
against them brought by PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar.
Judge John Louis O'Hara, in dismissing the applications,
said the court was of the view that the suit should be allowed to go for full
trial, and set May 8, 2017, for the trial.
He also advised the two parties to consider resolving the
suit through mediation and fixed July 18 for case management for the parties to
come back on their efforts for mediation.
Nurul Izzah, the Lembah Pantai MP, filed the suit on Nov 26
last year claiming that Khalid had allegedly uttered slanderous words against
her during a press conference at the Bukit Aman police headquarters on the same
day.
She also claimed that Ismail Sabri had allegedly used a
libellous media statement against her on the same day during an event in Bera,
Pahang.
O'Hara held that Nurul Izzah's suit had disclosed reasonable
cause of action, and was not frivolous, vexatious, scandalous and abuse of the
court process.
The judge ordered the two defendants, Khalid and Ismail
Sabri, to pay RM2,500 each as legal costs to Nurul Izzah.
In her statement of claim, Nurul Izzah said the statements
were made by Khalid and Ismail Sabri several days after the appearance of a
photograph showing her with Jacel Kiram, daughter of Jamalulail Kiram, who had
allegedly ordered an attack on and intrusion into Sabah in 2013.
She claimed that the words implied that she was a traitor to
the country and the mastermind of the intrusion into Sabah.
- Bernama
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