The civil court has suggested that Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad explore mediation as part of efforts to try resolve their defamation suits against each other.
The rural and regional development minister’s counsel Shahrul Fazli Kamarulzaman confirmed with Malaysiakini on the suggestion by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur over the status of the two political veterans’ civil actions.
Zahid is suing Mahathir over an allegation that the former met the latter in order to get on the latter’s good side as the former anticipated he (Zahid) would be facing criminal charges.
Mahathir is suing Zahid over the claim that the latter slandered the former’s ancestry.
Shahrul said that the High Court made the suggestion during case management of Zahid’s civil action against Mahathir earlier today.
Co-counsel Intan Hanis Afiqah Razali represented Zahid while lawyer Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi appeared for Mahathir during the chamber proceedings before deputy registrar Nor Afidah Idris.
The lawyer explained that the court had advised the two veteran politicians to refer the suits to the mediation centre.
When contacted by Malaysiakini, Mior also confirmed the court’s suggestion regarding the mediation.
Filed in April last year, Zahid’s defamation suit was over Mahathir’s remarks during a press conference in Putrajaya two months earlier on Feb 23.
Mahathir was responding to a question on whether Zahid had met him while he was prime minister to discuss the latter's corruption court cases.
This reportedly occurred before Mahathir took office in 2018 when he said it was clear he would become prime minister.
In July last year, Mahathir filed his defamation action over Zahid’s alleged slanderous remarks during a speech at the Kelana Jaya Umno division meeting back on July 30, 2017.
Both defamation suits would come up for further case management before the High Court on July 14. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.