Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s defamation suit against former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will come up for a full hearing for four days beginning Nov 6.
The defendant’s counsel Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi confirmed with Malaysiakini that the trial dates - from Nov 6 to 9 - were set during case management before the High Court Registry in Kuala Lumpur this morning.
The full hearing would be presided over by judge Rozana Ali Yusoff.
Lawyer Intan Hanis Afiqah Razali appeared for Zahid, who is also the Rural and Regional Development Minister.
In April last year, Umno president Zahid (above) filed a civil suit against then Pejuang chairperson Mahathir over the allegation that the plaintiff had met the defendant to try and get on his (Mahathir’s) good side as Zahid anticipated he would be facing criminal charges.
This reportedly occurred before Mahathir took office in 2018 when he said it was clear he would become prime minister.
Mahathir’s remarks were allegedly made during a press conference in Putrajaya on Feb 23 last year. He was responding to a question on whether Zahid had met him while he was prime minister to discuss the latter's corruption court cases.
Zahid, in his statement of claim, denied ever meeting Mahathir to discuss his court cases or any action by enforcement agencies prior to Mahathir becoming prime minister.
The Bagan Datuk MP claimed that Mahathir's remarks were defamatory and malicious.
The former prime minister on March 2 last year denied defaming Zahid in a reply to Zahid’s notice of summons.
Zahid is seeking aggravated and exemplary damages as well as an injunction against Mahathir, his officers, aides or agents from repeating the allegedly defamatory remarks, as well as instructing the nonagenarian to make efforts to delete or edit out recordings of his remarks published by the media. - Mkini
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