Najib's suit against Tony Pua postponed to Dec 1

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's suit against Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua Kiam Wee over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) issue has been postponed to Dec 1.

High Court judge Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera set the date in chambers today after meeting Najib's counsel Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun and Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, and Pua's counsel Gobind Singh Deo.

Firoz told reporters that all parties had agreed to wait for the Court of Appeal's decision on whether a person holding an office had the locus standi to file a defamation suit.

The lawyer was referring to the case involving the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) and Suara Keadilan.

"In this suit, our client (Najib) has filed in his personal capacity and there's nothing to prevent him from doing so.

"But the High Court has set Dec 1 for case management pending the Court of Appeal's decision on the case," he said.

Firoz said the Court of Appeal had yet to fix the hearing date for the case involving Felda and Suara Keadilan.

Today, the court was scheduled to hear Najib's application to expunge certain parts of Pua's affidavit as well as the application by Pua, who is the first defendant, to strike out Najib's suit against him.

Mohd Hafarizam said the High Court would also hear on Dec 1, Najib's application to expunge certain parts of the statement of defence filed by second defendant, Chan Chee Kong, the owner of Mediarakyat.net portal.

The Prime Minister, in his personal capacity, filed the defamation suit on March 5 this year against Pua, 42, and Chan, 51.

In his statement of claim, Najib said that on Nov 13 last year, Pua as the main speaker at a DAP fundraising dinner, made a remark defaming 1MDB.

He said a recording of the speech was uploaded by Chan himself and/or his agents on YouTube and the Mediarakyat website under what he alleged was a libellous heading.

Najib alleged that the recording of the speech contained defamatory words that referred to and related to him, as the individual known as the "prime minister" must have referred specifically to him.

He further claimed that Pua's remarks meant among other things, that he had robbed the people of their money with regard to 1MDB transactions and as such, was untrusworthy and unqualified to hold public office.

Najib said the publication of Pua's speech had damaged his reputation as it could be accessed and shared widely and freely throughout the world via the Internet, blogs, forums and websites.