KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today set Dec 20 to 22 this year and March 14 to 17 next year to hear two defamation suits filed by Dr Zakir Naik against Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy.
The suits, filed separately in October and December 2019, claimed that Ramasamy had made defamatory statements against the preacher, besides linking him to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) issue.
Akberdin Abdul Kader, representing Zakir, said that Judge Mohd Firuz Jaffril set the new trial dates.
“The trial dates previously set by the court, March 22 to 26, have been vacated due to the implementation of the conditional movement control order at that time,” he told reporters after case management before Firuz.
Akberdin said his team would call five witnesses, including Naik, to testify, while the defendant would present six witnesses.
He also said the court set Nov 22 for further case management for the parties involved.
On Oct 16, 2019, Naik had sued Ramasamy for allegedly making defamatory statements, uploaded on social media and news portals, between 2016 and 2019.
In his statement of claim, Naik claimed that on April 10, 2016, Ramasamy defamed him by calling him by an unsavoury name on his Facebook page.
He said Ramasamy also made a defamatory statement against him on Oct 1, 2017, in an FMT article that day.
Naik also claimed that on Aug 11, 2019, Ramasamy had “manipulated” his speech during an event organised by the Kelantan government, and that it was also published by FMT the same day.
He said Ramasamy made another defamatory statement on Aug 20, 2019, published by India Today.
In December 2019, Naik filed a second suit against Ramasamy, alleging that he had been defamed through comments posted on The Malaysian Insight on the LTTE issue. - FMT
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