Ismail Sabri's 'turtle eggs' suit stays in KL

Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's suit against the Sabah Publishing House and a newspaper editor over the turtle eggs issue will still be heard at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.

This after a three-member Court of Appeal panel in Putrajaya today dismissed the appeal from the publisher of the newspaper, the Daily Express, and its editor James Sarda, to strike out the case, citing jurisdiction, and ordered the minister to amend his statement of claim.

Justice Rohana Yusuf, who led the bench, said that striking out is a very serious order to be made.

"After hearing submission by parties, we are mindful to dismiss the appeal.

"Further, we order the respondent (Ismail) to affect the necessary amendment to the pleading (ie statement of claim) with regard to the cause of action in West Malaysia through the website," said Justice Rohana.

She ordered the amendment of the statement of claim to be made within two weeks.

Justice Vernon Ong and Justice Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil were the other judges who sat with Justice Rohana.

The case management was then fixed for May 7 before Justice Nordin Hassan in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.

Sabah Publishing House was represented by lawyer Bhag Singh while Ragunath Kesavan appeared for Ismail.

Ismail filed the suit in March last year over three Daily Expressarticles that were published between Jan 24 and Sept 9 in 2015, which alleged that turtle eggs were served to him at an Umno function in Sabah in 2015.

It was reported on Oct 9 that Sabah Publishing House, which publishes the Daily Express, had failed to strike out Ismail's suit.

The company applied to strike out the claim on the grounds that Ismail should have filed the claim in Sabah and not in Peninsular Malaysia - at either the Court of Malaya or in the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak.

The publishing company had also failed in its judicial reviewapplication in the High Court in Sabah last month.

The Bera MP claimed the articles implied that he was evading responsibility, had no respect for the Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1967 and showed complete disregard for the investigation process despite being a federal minister.

Ismail complained that the newspaper continued to publish the articles without seeking his comments or views, nor those of relevant government departments as to whether he refused to cooperate with investigators.

Sabah Publishing House, in its defence filed in May, claimed that the articles published were not wrong and denied that it acted in bad faith against the minister and challenged Ismail to provide ample proof of his allegation. -Mkini