The Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur has ordered Sapura Energy Bhd (SEB) to hand Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli documents regarding the company’s former CEO Shahril Shamsuddin.
Judge Lailatul Zuraida Haron this afternoon partly allowed Pandan MP Rafizi’s third-party discovery application to strengthen his defence against Shahril’s defamation suit.
Rafizi’s counsel Navpreet Singh confirmed with the media regarding the outcome of the matter.
The lawyer said that the civil court ordered SEB - a third party that is neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the defamation suit - to hand over the relevant documents within one month from today.
“The next case management (before the Sessions Court) is on May 15, namely to update the court in respect of Sapura’s compliance with the court's decision for production of the documents,” Navpreet said.
Shahril, who is currently Sapura Group’s president and CEO, is suing the PKR deputy president over the allegation that the plaintiff’s remuneration was too high in light of SEB’s financial difficulties.
The crux of Rafizi’s statement of defence is that he is ready to prove in court the alleged truth of the contents of the three online articles that form the basis for the defamation action.
The lawsuit is over three allegedly defamatory articles carried on Rafizi’s blog between March 31 and April 4 last year.
The three articles formed part of Rafizi’s then online debate with former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak over whether it was proper for public funds to be used to bail out SEB and over the root cause of the company’s financial distress.
Among the issues at the heart of the debate was whether Shahril’s remuneration as then SEB CEO was excessive.
On March 18, Bernama reported that SEB suffered a RM8.9 billion loss for the financial year ending Jan 31 2022, and its subsidiaries were served with winding up petitions.
Plaintiff Shahril is represented by counsel from Zul Rafique & Partners. - Mkini
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