The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today fixed three days, beginning Jan 2 next year, to hear a RM50 million defamation suit filed by former Perak menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin against Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Berhad or TV3 .

Justice Yeoh Wee Siam set the date in chambers when the case came up for mention in the presence of lawyers Mohd Fitri Asmuni, representing Mohammad Nizar, and Lim Qi Si, for TV3 .

The court also set Dec 10 for case management.

Lim, when met by reporters, said that she had received instructions from her client to proceed with the case although Mohammad Nizar was willing to settle the matter out of court.

Mohammad Nizar filed the suit concerning his comments on the WWW 1 vehicle number plate, a bid for which made for RM520,000.

Meanwhile, the court also set Oct 24 to hear an application by Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Berhad to set aside a judgment in default obtained by Mohammad Nizar on Aug 8 in a similar suit filed against the daily Utusan Malaysia .

Mohd Fitri told reporters that the date was fixed by High Court judge Zabariah Mohd Yusof.

Mohammad Nizar had filed the two suits against Utusan Melayu and TV3 on July 10.

In the statement of claim, Mohammad Nizar stated that on May 28 he issued a statement on the vehicle number plate through his Twitter account and on May 30, TV3 had covered the statement in its Main Bulletin news at 8pm.

He added that following day, May 31, Utusan Malaysia published an article on page 11 of its daily on the same matter.

Mohammad Nizar claimed that the alleged defamatory statement had tarnished his image and could be interpreted to mean he was a traitor to the Malay rulers, especially the sultan of Johor, a politician who was anti-royalty and who instigated the people to hate the sultan of Johor.     

- Bernama