The High Court has fixed Feb 24 for case management of Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat's RM500 million defamation suit against Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Tiong King Sing who is also the Bintulu member of parliament.

Deputy Registrar Norazlin Othman fixed the date in chambers today to enable both parties to reply to the affidavits.

NONE On Aug 24, Ong who is also MCA president, filed the suit against Tiong, claiming that Tiong had issued a defamatory statement that he had given Ong RM10 million, which was published in the Malaysiakini website on Aug 12.

In his statement of claim, he said that the statement was untrue and he wanted Tiong to retract it and publish an apology to him in all the major newspapers.

Ong is also seeking aggravated and exemplary damages and an injunction to restrain Tiong or his agent from further making any defamatory statement against him regarding the issue.

He claimed that the statement was made in bad faith and with malice to prevent a fair and correct investigation into the abuse of funds by the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) and Kuala Dimensi's role in the affair.

Kuala Dimensi is the turnkey contractor for the PKFZ project.

Ong said the statement had tarnished his reputation, image, integrity and good name in the eyes of the public.

He said that by a letter dated Aug 13, he demanded that Tiong, chairperson of the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club (BNBBC), retract the statement and apologise but to date Tiong had refused to do so.

Ong was represented by counsel Ronnie Tan and Harjit Singh Sandhu while counsel Prem Ramachandran appeared for Tiong.

- Bernama