Appeals court reinstates paragraphs, exhibits in Pua's supporting affidavit

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today reinstated two paragraphs and two exhibits on 1MDB in Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua Kiam Wee's affidavit supporting his bid to strike out Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's defamation suit.
A three-man bench led by Justice Datuk Rohana Yusuf unanimously allowed Pua's appeal to set aside a Kuala Lumpur High Court decision in expunging the paragraphs and exhibits in the affidavit.
In her decision, Justice Rohana said the court found merit in the issues raised by Pua's counsel Alliff Benjamin Suhaimi.
The two other judges on the bench were Justices Tan Sri Idrus Harun and Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan.
On May 5 this year, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur allowed Najib's application to remove the two paragraphs in Pua's affidavit and two exhibits on 1MDB.
Najib had sued Pua, 43, and Chan Chee Kong, 52, the owner of Mediarakyat.net online portal, in his personal capacity, alleging that Pua as the main speaker at a DAP fund-raising dinner on Nov 14, 2014, had made disparaging remarks about 1MDB.
He alleged that Pua's speech, under a libellous heading, was uploaded by Chan or his agent on YouTube — Mediarakyat and the Mediarakyat website.
Najib also alleged that the publication of the libellous article, which could be accessed and shared freely worldwide through the Internet, blogs, forums and websites, had damaged his reputation.
Pua applied for the suit to be struck out and Najib, meanwhile, applied for the paragraphs and exhibits to be expunged.
Lawyer Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun, representing Najib, said he would take instructions from the prime minister on whether to bring the matter up to the Federal Court.
He, however, said the Court of Appeal's decision today to reinstate the paragraphs and exhibits, in his opinion, did not have any effect on Pua's striking out the application on locus standi.
Alliff Benjamin told reporters that the matter had been fixed for case management on Dec 1 at the High Court in respect of Pua's application to strike out the suit. — Bernama