Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali has applied to set aside the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision to initiate contempt proceedings against him.

In his application, filed yesterday, he claimed that he had nothing to do with the posting of the article on the Perkasa website, pertaining to a judge who presided in a defamation trial to be put off.

Lawyer Sivarasa Rasiah, who is applying for the committal, said they only received the application to set aside the decision with an affidavit in support.

Following this, Justice John Louis O Hara asked both parties to file their respective affidavits on the matter and fixed May 16 for hearing.

NONE On March 5, O Hara allowed Sivarasa ( left in photo ) to obtain leave to initiate contempt proceedings against Ibrahim and blogger Zainuddin Salleh, who is the author of the article.

Ibrahim, who is also Pasir Mas MP, was present in court today.

On Jan 17, it was reported that papers were filed against Ibrahim and Zainuddin for the disparaging article about High Court judge VT Singham posted on Zainuddin’s blog, part of which Perkasa produced on its website, with a link to the full article.

Ibrahim was named by virtue of being a Perkasa office-bearer.

The article posted on the Perkasa blog on Jan 7 questions Justice Singham’s impartiality in presiding over Anwar Ibrahim’s defamation suit against Utusan Malaysia , as based on his rulings and decisions - which the author claimed - leaned towards the opposition.

It also questioned the judge’s views on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, also based on the case, and noted that the judge was a bachelor himself.

The comments were made in the context of Singham presiding over Anwar Ibrahim’s defamation suit against Utusan Malaysia .

Sivarasa also said that Zainuddin has also filed his affidavit regarding the contempt proceeding.

Hence, the court has fixed May 3 for Sivarasa to file the affidavit-in-reply and May 10 for the other side to file their affidavit if there is any, and then May 16 for hearing.

'Offending article completely false'

In Ibrahim’s affidavit in support, he said the offending article is completely false and unjustified and that he had never repeated the contents of the article.

NONE He said that he respected Anwar ( right ) as a fellow MP and opposition leader and never questioned the integrity and impartiality of Singham.

“I do not condone the contests of the article in the blog. In Singham’s personal life, I have not heard a negative bad word being uttered by his lordship,” the Pasir Mas MP said.

Following this he denied being in contempt of court and claimed that the website was never maintained and is no longer in use.

Ibrahim, however, admitted that Zainuddin is a member of Perkasa. However, he has never been in the employment of the organisation.

He claimed that Zainuddin is the registered owner of the website www.pribumiperkasa.com and that the website was created without the knowledge or consent of Perkasa, and hence its contents are not within its control.

“Neither Perkasa nor Media Perkasa have contributed financially to the setting up or maintenance of Zainuddin’s website. Zainuddin’s website is not the official Perkasa website and neither I nor Perkasa consented to the articles,” he said in the affidavit.

“Had I been approached to consent to this article to be published, I would have most certainly objected to the same. The article is offensive and defamatory to Singham and I would not condone this publication,” he said.

Ibrahim said he is aware of the insinuations in the article but in no way would he consent or condone it being published. He claimed that he played no part and had no intentions of intimidating the court.

The publication of the article on Jan 7, was way before Justice Singham delivered his decision in Anwar’s suit against Utusan Malaysia , which the opposition leader won .