Hearing of Mohd Puad's application to set aside injunction order on July 26

KUALA LUMPUR: The hearing of Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi's application to set aside the interim injunction obtained by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to restrain him from republishing the alleged defamatory statements involving the prime minister on his Facebook page, has been postponed to July 26.

During the virtual case management today, High Court Judge Datuk Mohd Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril also set the same date for hearing Muhyiddin's application for an inter-parte injunction order.

Muhyiddin's lawyer Rosli Dahlan, when contacted, said the hearing for both applications was supposed to take place today but was postponed following the implementation of the nationwide total lockdown from June 1 to 14.

"Therefore, the court extends the ad-interim injunction obtained by the plaintiff (Muhyiddin) pending the hearing of the inter-parte injunction and the defendant's (Mohd Puad) application to cancel the injunction on July 26 on the same terms as the ex-parte interim injunction order," he said.

Lawyer Shahrul Fazli Kamaruzaman, who is representing Mohd Puad, confirmed the matter.

On March 1, Muhyiddin obtained an ex-parte interim injunction order from the court to restrain Mohd Puad, an UMNO Supreme Council member, from republishing allegedly defamatory statements over a quarantine order involving the prime minister on his (Mohd Puad) Facebook page.

In his application filed with the writ of summons, Muhyiddin applied for an interim injunction to restrain Mohd Puad, or his agent, representative or anyone from re-publishing, re-posting and re-sharing the allegedly defamatory statements on Mohd Puad's Facebook page.

Muhyiddin filed the application on grounds that the statements by Mohd Puas are false, defamatory and had tarnished the reputation and the good name of the prime minister locally and internationally.

Meanwhile, in a writ of summons filed in his personal capacity, Muhyiddin claimed that on Feb 8, Mohd Puad had published a post on his Facebook account under the name "DrPuad Zarkashi" with the title 'Kuarantin pun ada dua darjat?'.

Muhyiddin claimed that the post could be accessed by Internat users across the world and had received 1,200 reactions, 215 comments and 182 shares.

He claimed that the post referred to "PM" which is an abbreviation for the Prime Minister and that the post contained untrue, unwarranted, unsubstantiated and mischievous remarks against him and defamed him.

Muhyiddin claimed that the statements implied that he and his entourage had refused to undergo quarantine for 10 days upon their return from their official trip to Jakarta, Indonesia.

-- BERNAMA