Isham Jalil now has the opportunity to respond to Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak’s injunction bid against him as part of the latter's RM1 million defamation suit over an alleged investment worth nearly RM40 million in a company shortlisted for a government contract.
The former Umno information chief's counsel Chetan Jethwani confirmed the outcome of yesterday's proceeding before the Kuala Lumpur High Court over the ex-parte injunction bid by Farhash (above), the former political secretary of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
The counsel said that the court wished to hear both sides’ arguments over the injunction application.
"The court expressed the view that it preferred to hear the (injunction) application inter partes and directed the plaintiff to serve the papers on the defendant," the lawyer told Malaysiakini today.
It is understood that the court proceedings yesterday were ex-parte in nature.
Under the law, an ex-parte proceeding is one where only one party in the legal action is present, while inter-partes is a court proceeding where both parties are present to offer oral submissions.
The civil court has set July 4 to hear oral submissions from Farhash and Isham's legal teams over the injunction.
When reached out by Malaysiakini, Farhash’s counsel Weera Premananda said that the court yesterday wanted to hear arguments from legal teams for both plaintiff and defendant over the restraining order.
Farhash sought the restraining order to maintain the status quo between the plaintiff and Isham, pending disposal of the main defamation civil suit against the defendant.
Farhash is suing Isham over a March 17 video on a TikTok channel, titled “Kroni Anwar beli saham syarikat disenarai pendek kontrak imigresen RM1 bilion?” (Anwar's crony purchases shares of company shortlisted for RM1 billion immigration contract?).
Isham later lodged a police report to initiate an investigation into the allegation.
‘Crony capitalism’
Earlier in March, The Straits Times reported that Farhash has emerged as a substantial shareholder of technology services provider HeiTech Padu, which is running for a billion-ringgit immigration system deal.
The report also stated that Farhash and his partner acquired a 4.97 percent stake in Theta Edge, a competitor of HeiTech Padu.
Farhash has dismissed concerns of “crony capitalism” following the report.
After issuing the letter of demand against Isham, Farhash filed the writ of summons in the civil court against the defendant.
Through the defamation suit, Farhash claimed that the social media posting contained untrue and malicious allegations.
The plaintiff is seeking multiple reliefs, among them RM1 million in general damages and an order for the defendant to retract the alleged defamatory online posting and publicly apologise. - Mkini
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