The Kuala Lumpur High Court has fixed Oct 11 to deliver its decision on whether Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor and seven others will be granted a stay from filing their defence in a suit to cause injury.
The suit was filed by A Santamil Selvi and her children. Santamil is the widow of private investigator P Balasubramaniam, who was involved in the Altantuya Shaariibuu case.
Najib and the other defendants want the suit to be struck out without them filing their defence.
Justice Hue Siew Kheng fixed the date after hearing submission in chambers for a stay by the defendants, while lawyers Gopal Sri Ram and Americk Sidhu, who are representing Santamil Selvi, want them to file their defence.
Santamil Selvi filed the suit again recently, claiming that the 2008 exile of her family resulted in injury and loss of income.
Besides Najib and Rosmah, Santamil Selvi named Najib's younger brothers Ahmad Johari and Nazim, along with senior lawyer Cecil Abraham and his son Sunil Abraham, carpet businessman Deepak Jaikishian, commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat, who affirmed the second statutory declaration by Balasubramaniam, as well as lawyer M Arulampalam, who held the second press conference with the private investigator.
They cited that there was no reasonable cause of action in filing the latest action. All were represented by separate lawyers.
Americk told reporters after the proceedings that the defendants should have stated what they claim in their defence pleading, rather than filing a striking out application.
Meanwhile, Najib and Rosmah's lawyer, Mohd Hafarizam Harun, told reporters they raised the issue of locus standii and there is no reasonable cause of action as to what the family claimed happened in 2008.
He added that since the filing of a civil suit is time-barred to within six years, Santamil Selvi should have filed the action by 2014.
It was previously reported that Santamil Selvi and her children filed the earlier suit naming those people as defendants citing conspiracy which led them to exile. The suit was struck out two years ago, without its merits heard, after the family exhausted its appeal.
Santamil Selvi and her children claimed that Balasubramaniam publicly unveiled his statutory declaration on July 3, 2008, which contained damning allegations against Najib and his links with Altantuya.
Following this, the family claimed that Rosmah summoned Deepak to Sri Satria, the official residence of then deputy prime minister Najib, for talks on the statutory declaration.
This is said to have led to the second statutory declaration being made a day after, the retraction of the first, and subsequently their exile.
Balasubramaniam returned to Malaysia with his family in 2013, but passed away several months later. - Mkini
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