KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has set aside three days from Jan 29 next year to hear a defamation suit filed by former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob against former Umno Supreme Council member Lokman Noor Adam.
Ismail’s lawyer Joshua Tan said Justice Ahmad Shahrir Salleh also instructed parties to file all pre-trial documents by March 20.
The court will conduct another case management on March 21.
Ismail was appointed prime minister on Aug 20, 2021 and held the post until Nov 24 last year.
He filed the suit against Lokman on Sept 8 last year over a video titled “Bila Presiden Umno panggil Tak Datang! Tapi PM Ada Masa Jumpa Mahathir – Lokman Adam”.
In his statement of claim, Ismail said Lokman had uploaded the video on his TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook accounts on Aug 22 last year.
He said the video contained statements that were defamatory, untrue and malicious.
Lokman had claimed that Ismail met former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and several leaders of political parties opposed to Umno to enable him to remain the prime minister, sidelining the interests of his own party, Umno.
He had also alleged that Ismail had interfered to ensure former prime minister Najib Razak was convicted and jailed.
In his defence to the suit, Lokman claimed the video was not defamatory and that it was not done with malicious intent.
Lokman, represented by Faiz Abdul Rahim, is also relying on the defences of justification, qualified privilege and fair comment.
He has also filed a counterclaim against Ismail on grounds that he had allegedly suffered financial loss as a result of taking down the video from his social media accounts.
On Jan 5, Shahrir granted Ismail an interim injunction to remove the video pending the disposal of the suit with the consent of both parties.
Prior to that, the court had issued an ad interim injunction pending an inter partes hearing.