March 8 court date for Lynas' appeal

The Court of Appeal has fixed March 8, for hearing of an appeal by Lynas Corporation Limited and Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd to set aside a High Court decision to transfer the companies' defamation suit against anti-Lynas group Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas (SMSL), to the Kuantan High Court.

Court of Appeal deputy registrar Suriyanilakma Abd Kadir set the date after the matter came up before her in chambers for case management today.

Lawyer Rishwant Singh and Renee Tiun represented the companies while Gene Vendargon appeared for SMSL.

The companies were also directed to file the records of appeal on or by Dec 19, this year.

On Sept 26, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Datuk John Louis O'Hara allowed SMSL's application to transfer the civil suit to the Kuantan High Court for hearing.

Lynas Corporation of Sydney, Australia and Lynas Malaysia filed the suit last April 19, at the Kuala Lumpur High Court against SMSL Sdn Bhd and its two directors, Tan Bun Teet and Lim Sow Teow, and three volunteers, Hang Chong Leung, Lee Chow Fong and Ismail Abu Bakar, over an alleged defamatory article published in its blogsite on March 22, this year.

Lynas had sought for an injunction order to have SMSL and five others remove the article titled, 'Civil Society Organisations Joint Statement on Lynas Issue: SMSL Malaysian NGO statement Against Lynas' from its blogsite, until the disposal of the suit.

On July 26, this year, O'Hara dismissed Lynas' injunction application and held that, at that stage, the court could not conclude whether the statement was defamatory or otherwise, until it heard the evidence in a full trial.

The Kuantan High Court had set Dec 17 for case management of the case.