Kit Siang, Hanif ordered to appear in court over defamation suit

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang and former inspector-general of police Hanif Omar have to appear in court on Aug 28 after their attempt to reach an out-of-court settlement over Lim's defamation suit reached a dead-end.

According to Lim's counsel Rayveni Asogan, High Court judge Azimah Omar told lawyers representing the plaintiff and defendant that she wants to meet their clients on that date.

"The judge has fixed Aug 28 for case management at 2.30pm, and she has instructed both clients to be present.

"We informed her that our clients were unable to settle, and she said that she wants to meet them and see if she can work something out for them to settle (the matter)," she told reporters this morning.

The case would go into trial if Lim and Hanif still could not reach an agreement then, Rayveni added.

Case management for the matter today was done in Justice Azimah's chambers.

Lim filed the defamation suit on Oct 19 last year against Hanif over the latter's remark on Lim's arrest linked to the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

The suit is related to an article published in the Malay-language newspaper Sinar Harian titled 'Tun Hanif buat pendedahan DAP, PAS', which was published on Sept 6 last year.

In the article, Hanif was quoted as stating that he was forced to incarcerate Lim for the sake of national harmony during the 1969 racial riots.

"DAP suggested that Peninsular Malaysia be split into two, East Coast for the Malays and the West Coast for the Chinese.

"What was my answer? I put Lim Kit Siang in prison.

"He was in (detention) for two years. That was Hanif's way when I was the inspector-general of police," he had said.

Lim had described Hanif's remark as a "cock and bullstory".

On Dec 20 last year, Hanif filed a counter-claimagainst Lim.

In the counter-suit, Hanif claimed that Lim had defamed the former through social media and statements uploaded on websites in September last year.

He further claimed that Lim's remarks had implied that he had promoted “cock-and-bull” stories on Lim's arrest under the now-defunct Internal Security Act, and that the former IGP was a senile old man, a liar, a person with no credibility and manipulator of historical facts, among others. - Mkini