The Kuala Lumpur High Court today set June 15 to hear an application by Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to amend his RM100 million defamation suit and statement of claim against Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.

Senior assistant registrar Noordura Mohamed Din fixed the date in chambers in the presence of Anwar's counsel, Wan Anuar Wan Shahadat; senior federal counsel Amarjeet Singh, who represented the foreign minister and the government, and lawyer K Vasanthi, who represented Anifah in his personal capacity.

On April 7 this year, Anwar was allowed to amend his statement of claim to specifically mention Anifah's name as the foreign minister as a defendant.

This was because, Anwar had named Anifah in his personal capacity as the first defendant, the foreign minister as second defendant and the Malaysian government as the third defendant.

With the amendment, Anifah has been named in his official capacity as foreign minister.

The issue on who should be named defendants in the suit cropped up when Amarjeet Singh submitted an application to strike out the suit.

Amarjeet Singh said Anwar should choose who he wanted to name as defendant in the suit as the first and second defendant were the same person.

On May 27 last year, Anwar filed the suit against Anifah over his statement at a news conference in Washington, the United States, on May 16 the same year.

Anwar is seeking RM100mil in compensatory damages, aggravated damages and exemplary damages and an injunction to restrain the defendants from further saying, writing or publishing the alleged defamatory.

In his statement of claim, Anwar said that Anifah, at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the US Department of State in Washington, made a statement that Anwar had offered him the post of deputy prime minister if the latter was to set up a government on Sept 16, 2008.

Anwar also claimed that Anifah had defamed him by saying that he was attempting to buy over MPs and was tarnishing the country’s image.

- Bernama