PETALING JAYA: Former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad’s defamation suit against Najib Razak has been fixed for trial over four days in June 2024.
Lawyer SN Nair, who is representing Dzulkefly, said the trial dates were fixed during case management before High Court deputy registrar Nurul Izzah Hassan Basri.
Lawyer Wan Mohammad Arfan Wan Othman represented the former prime minister.
Nair, who is assisted by Jaden Phoon Wai Ken, said the trial was scheduled to be held from June 3 to 6.
“All pre-trial actions relating to this case, including filing of documents, have been done,” he told FMT.
Asked why the trial would only be held two years from now, he said: “That was the earliest available date in the court’s diary.”
Dzulkefly filed the suit on Dec 31 last year following Najib’s Facebook post alleging that the former health minister practised nepotism as his daughter Nurul Iman had been appointed a board member of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia in 2019.
In his statement of claim, Dzulkefly said Najib had defamed him with the allegation made in the Facebook post on Aug 24, 2020, which was reported by a Malay daily.
The Kuala Selangor MP, who had denied the nepotism allegation, said Najib’s post was still on his Facebook page as at November 2021.
He also claimed that Nurul Iman’s appointment was made before he became the health minister in the Pakatan Harapan government and that she was reappointed or retained for the position in the microcredit organisation last year.
Najib, in his defence, said he had no intention of defaming Dzulkefly on social media, and was instead highlighting PH’s “hypocrisy” after the opposition coalition had accused the Barisan Nasional of nepotism and cronyism.
Najib’s Facebook post was accompanied by a Sinar Harian screenshot (that was published on Jan 28, 2019 – 19 months before Najib’s Facebook posting), with the Pekan MP saying this was to allow the public to fairly assess the issue.
It was in reference to (criticism about) appointments to various government-linked companies (GLCs) despite the fact that while PH was in government (from May 2018 to February 2020) it had made appointments of a similar nature, added Najib in his defence.