The parties in the suit filed by Jazimin Abdul Jalil, the father of the murdered girl Nurin Jazlin, against the government and the police reached an out-of-court-settlement today.

High Court judge Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal recorded the settlement in chambers in the presence of counsel Siti Natasha Basheer Hassan for Jazimin and senior federal counsel Zureen Elina Mohd Dom for the defendants.

Before this, the two parties had a mediation process to settle the case out of court.

nurin jazlin jazimin Approached by reporters, Zureen Elina said the plaintiff had withdrawn the suit against the four defendants without liberty to file the suit again and with no order as to costs.

Asked about the terms of settlement, she said that they could not be disclosed.

Jazimin, 35, a security company employee, sued the inspector-general of police, Selangor police chief, Petaling Jaya police chief and the Malaysian government for negligence over the distribution of the autopsy pictures of his eight-year-old daughter on the Internet.

On Jan 29 this year, Jazimin was allowed to include Lance Corporal Amran Arifin as the fifth defendant after the defendants in their defence statement indicated that he distributed the pictures.

On July 22, Jazimin obtained a judgment in default against Amran as he failed to file a notice of appearance after a summons was served on him on May 18 this year.

In the suit filed on Aug 21, 2008, Jazimin was seeking damages and other relief deemed fit by the court, saying the pictures were not for public consumption but only for investigations into his daughter's case.

Nurin Jazlin went missing on Aug 20, 2007, after she went to the night market near her home in Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur.

Twenty-seven days later, her body was found stuffed in a gymnasium bag in front of a shop in Jalan PJS 1/48 in Petaling Jaya and an autopsy report revealed that she had been sexually abused.

- Bernama