Anwar's defamation suit against Khairy to go for trial

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's RM100 million defamation suit against Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar will proceed for trial at the High Court. This follows a unanimous decision by a five-member panel of the Federal Court on Monday to dismiss Khairy's application to be given leave to appeal to the Federal Court a High Court decision in refusing his application to strike out the civil suit filed against him. Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, who chaired the panel, said leave could not be granted to Khairy to appeal to the Federal Court because he failed to satisfy the threshold requirement of Section 96 (a) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964. He said the questions posed for determination of the Federal Court did not arise from the judgment of the High Court. Justice Zulkefli ordered Khairy, who is also Youth and Sports Minister, to pay RM15,000 in legal costs to Anwar. Also on the bench were Federal Court judges Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar, Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop, Datuk Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha and Datuk Seri Abu Samah Nordin. On March 7, 2008, Anwar, 66, filed the legal action against Khairy, claiming that the latter, as Umno Youth deputy chief, had uttered defamatory words and caused the posting on websites, including Malaysiakini.com, a video clip entitled 'Anwar and kin no threat'. The opposition leader claimed that the video clip on Malaysiakini.com contained defamatory words spoken by Khairy at a ceramah in Lembah Pantai in Kuala Lumpur on or about Feb 20, 2008. Khairy, in his statement of defence filed on Oct 8, 2010, said he relied on the defence of justification and qualified privilege. On Dec 21, 2011, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected Khairy's application to strike out the defamation suit. Khairy filed leave to appeal to the Federal Court as he had lost his appeal in the Court of Appeal on Aug 8 last year. Anwar's counsel Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah told reporters that the High Court had set this Thursday and Friday for hearing of the suit. Khairy was represented by lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.