1MDB - Pua given leave to challenge Najib's gag on him

The Federal Court has granted leave for Damansara MP Tony Pua to challenge an interim injunction barring him from making allegedly slanderous remarks about former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak with regards to the 1MDB scandal.

Chief Judge of the High Court of Malaya Ahmad Maarop, who led a three-member panel, said the case posed important questions that warranted further argument at the apex court.

The court unanimously allowed four legal questions to be argued, namely:

1. Whether a 1987 precedent set in the defamation case between New Straits Times Press and AirAsia Bhd is good law in view of the constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression.

2. Whether an application for an interim injunction ought to be dismissed in cases where the defendant had pleaded the defences of justification and fair comment in his defence, and/or stated under oath affirming that his belief that this statement was true.

3. Whether the exercise of the speaker of the Dewan Rakyat’s powers precludes a plaintiff’s right to establish that the exercise of the power was not bona fide in a civil suit.

4. Whether the court can treat the fact that the attorney-general had decided not to prosecute a case and his explanation for not doing so as being tantamount to an exoneration.

Other members of the panel were Federal Court Judges Balia Yusof Wahi and David Wong.

[More to follow] - Mkini