Waste of time, says judge as Mukhriz vs Tunku Aziz hearing vacated

Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Justice Nordin Hassan was not pleased when the hearing for Bersatu deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir's defamation suit against MACC advisory board chairperson Tunku Aziz Tunku Ibrahim was vacated.

Justice Nordin insisted that in the court diary it was scheduled that today is the first day of the hearing.

However, Mukhriz's lawyer Ilyani Khuszairi and Tunku Aziz's lawyer Najihah Baharun said that according to their diaries, the matter was stated as vacated.

Ilyani then apologised to Justice Nordin for assuming that the matter was vacated and Jan 11 was fixed for hearing to begin.

However, Justice Nordin warned that she should not assume as she could check with the court interpreters for clarification.

He said the court's records showed that only Jan 12 had been vacated for trial.

“I also noticed that the bundle of documents, including witness statements, have yet to be filed. Those documents have to be filed early.

“This is a defamation case, there should not be many documents to be filed,” Justice Nordin reminded both the lawyers.

Ilyani said the parties had agreed earlier that the witness statements would be given two weeks before the trial date.

Justice Nordin then fixed Dec 12 for case management and asked the parties to file the necessary documents earlier before the hearing date on Jan 11.

“This is a waste of the court's time when the case had to be postponed today. The court could have fixed other hearings on this day,” he told the lawyers.

Justice Noordin then asked how many witnesses would be called by Mukhriz (photo), to which Ilyani replied six. This included Mukhriz's father and former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former deputy premier Muhyiddin Yassin and DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang.

Whereas, Nahijah said her client would be calling two witnesses.

Since the witnesses are high-profile individuals, Justice Nordin said the lawyers must fix proper dates to obtain their witness statements.

On Oct 31, it was reported that Tunku Aziz, a former DAP vice-chairperson, failed to strike out Mukhriz's suit over an allegation of a secret pact between Mahathir and Lim.

Justice Nordin found that the defamation suit should proceed to a full trial as there are serious triable issues.

In his Feb 7 suit, Mukhriz claimed that Tunku Aziz (photo) had, since December last year, accused Mahathir of offering Lim the post of deputy prime minister if Mukhriz was made prime minister if the opposition wins the 14th general election.

The allegation, Mukhriz claimed, suggested that he was involved in a secret pact, that he was not sincere and transparent politically, and that he had gone behind the backs of other opposition members in a "conspiracy" to appoint himself prime minister and Lim as deputy prime minister.

Mukhriz complained that Tunku Aziz’s statements also made him appear power-hungry and implied that he had betrayed the trust of the voters and people by concealing the purported plot.

He also claimed that Tunku Aziz's statement suggested that he does not have principles and that he is a politician who follows his father's directions.- Mkini