Court to decide May 5 on Pua’s affidavit

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak wants to expunge parts of Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua’s affidavit

KUALA LUMPUR: Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua’s affidavit on a case involving Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak failed to show that he has personal knowledge about the 1MDB company operational functions, said lawyer Hafarizam Harun.

Judicial Commissioner Roslan A. Bakar fixed May 5 for a decision on whether to let Najib expunge parts of Pua’s affidavits.

Hafarizam, representing Najib, said that the affidavit, filed to support Pua’s bid to strike out the lawsuit by the Prime Minister on Pua’s allegations of his client taking people’s money, was merely based on hearsay. “The contents of his affidavits were searches of 1MDB from the Companies Commission (SSM), media reports and blogs.”

“This showed he has no personal knowledge and relied for his evidence on hearsay. He has no personal knowledge which can be admissible in affidavits.

He added that to confirm the information in the affidavits, Pua should get a SSM officer and reporters to affirm the information.

Pua’s lawyer, Gobind Singh, said that the SSM company search on 1MDB was already official records. “Did the PM (Prime Minister) try to dispute the records?”

Last year, Najib sued Pua and mediarakyat portal owner Chan Chee Keong over a statement made by the latter during a fundraising dinner function.

He claimed that Pua had made a defamatory remark and his speech was uploaded by Chan himself and/or his agents on YouTube and the mediarakyat website under what he claimed was a libelous heading.

Najib alleged that Pua’s speech meant that he had robbed the people of their money with regard to IMDB transactions, and he cannot be trusted and was allegedly not qualified to hold public office.

Najib is seeking general and exemplary damages, costs and injunction.