Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin today filed a notice of appeal against the dismissal of his application to set aside a judgment in default obtained by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim against him in a RM100 million defamation suit.

His counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, when contacted today, confirmed that the notice of appeal was filed this morning at the Kuala Lumpur Civil High Court Registry.

The notice, among others, sought an early hearing date, he said.

He said he was surprised at the decision because the writ of summons was not served on Khairy personally or at his last known address but at one of Khairy's offices where the Umno Youth chief was handling youth matters.

One of Anwar's counsel in the case, Wan Anuar Shadat, when contacted, said that the court, in its decision yesterday, ruled that the serving of the writ of summons on Khairy was valid and there was no meit in Khairy's statement of defence.

Yesterday, Kuala Lumpur High Court senior assistant registrar Nazri Yahya dismissed with costs Khairy's bid to set aside the default judgment obtained by Anwar from the High Court on Dec 4, 2008, after Khairy failed to enter an appearance.

Anwar, 63, in his suit, claimed that Khairy, as the then Umno Youth vice-chief, had uttered defamatory words and caused the posting on websites, including Malaysiakini.com, of a video clip entitled "Anwar and kin no threat".

Anwar claimed that the video clip on Malaysiakini.com contained defamatory words spoken by Khairy at a ceramah in Lembah Pantai here on or about Feb 20, 2008.

He said the defamatory words, among others, meant he was involved in activities contradictory to Islam, did not have good character and was not fit to hold political or other positions.

He sought RM100 million in aggravated and exemplary damages as well as other reliefs deemed fit by the court.

- Bernama