The ball is in Maria’s court now as she will decide whether to accept the proposal or not, her lawyer Melissa Sasidaran said.

The development came about after a High Court judge advised Maria and Jamal last month to settle the defamation suit out of court.

It was reported that Maria sued Jamal for allegedly linking Bersih 2.0 with the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

In her defamation suit, Maria alleged that Jamal had on Sept 28, falsely uttered slanderous words against Bersih during a press conference at the Putra World Trade Centre’s compound. He repeated the allegation on Oct 4 outside the Federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.

Maria is seeking general and aggravated damages, as well as an injunction to stop Jamal from repeating the alleged slanderous words.

High Court judge Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab set Feb 17 for further case management to settle pre-trial issues.