Naik’s lawyer Akberdin Abdul Kader said judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali dismissed Satees’ application to transfer the case to the George Town High Court during an online proceeding today.
He added that the court ordered Satees to pay RM6,000 in costs and will hear the lawsuit from April 17-20, 2023.
In his ruling, Nazlan said Satees wanted to move the case to the George Town court as his witnesses are mostly in Penang.
“It also cannot be ignored that the plaintiff (Naik), who resides in Putrajaya, has listed his witnesses, all of whom are based in the Klang Valley.
“In my view, … matters concerning the place of residence of the parties and their witnesses should no longer be a significant consideration in a transfer application given the vast progress made in the digitalisation of the court system and the use of remote communication technology on court proceedings,” he said.
Nazlan also pointed out that many civil cases have been heard on Zoom or Skype platforms, and the use of these applications was “becoming the new normal” in court proceedings.
“Accordingly, the issue concerning the location of the place of residence and business of litigants and their witnesses and the need for them to travel to attend court proceedings while still relevant is now of lesser significance in transfer applications,” he said.
Satees was represented by Anbananthan Yathiraju, while Sulaiman Abdullah and Mohd Rafie Mohd Shafie appeared for Naik together with Akberdin.
Naik filed the suit against Satees in 2019 over the assemblyman’s remarks in an FMT report, “DAP man blames LTTE crackdown on Zakir Naik’s presence”.
He claimed that Satees’ statement had ridiculed him and depicted him in a bad light and as a threat to the country’s security.
He also described himself as a renowned preacher and orator on comparative religion, adding that he had received numerous awards, including the Tokoh Maal Hijrah International Personality Award in 2013.
Besides Satees, Naik has also launched separate defamation suits against other DAP leaders, including M Kulasegaran, Charles Santiago, and P Ramasamy.