KUALA LUMPUR – The high court today postponed the hearing of Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad’s suit against Datuk Seri Najib Razak regarding a Facebook post about cronyism after the health minister’s lawyer withdrew from representing him.
Judicial commissioner Arziah Mohamed Apandi allowed the application by lawyer Datuk S.N. Nair and fixed March 5, 6, and 7, 2025 to hear the case.
“The court also set July 10 for case management and vacated the trial dates from today until June 6 (Thursday),” she said during the proceedings, also attended by Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee.
In January 2022, Dzulkefly filed the suit in his personal capacity, alleging that Najib uploaded a slanderous Facebook post on August 24, 2020 which related to cronyism, and attached a Sinar Harian article dated January 28, 2019 with a picture of the plaintiff.
He claimed the statement, among others, meant the plaintiff practised cronyism by offering posts in government and private companies to relatives without any objective evaluation.
The plaintiff alleged Najib’s post intended to attack Dzulkefly personally, tarnish his reputation, as well as to shame him.
As such, the plaintiff applied for an injunction order to restrain the defendant or his agents from continuing to publish or disseminate the post and an order for the defendant to publish a written apology on his Facebook and a local newspaper of his choice within seven days from the date of the order.
Apart from that, the plaintiff is also seeking general, aggravated, exemplary damages and any other relief deemed fit by the court. – June 4, 2024