The Kuala Lumpur High Court today asked PAS organ Harakah to file its defence this Friday following a de‎famation suit filed by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak against it over 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). 

 

Senior assistant registrar V Vanita further fixed ‎May 8 for Najib to reply to the defence and fixed May 28 for case management.

 

Najib filed the suit on March 18 and the case is fixed before Justice Hue Siew Kheng.

 

It has been previously reported that Najib had also filed defamation suits against two federal lawmakers Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli .

However, this is the second suit filed by Najib regarding the 1MDB fiasco.

The PM named managing director of Harakah , Rosli Yaakob and the chief editor of the portal Harakahdaily , Taufek Yahya as defendants in the suit.

Malicious intent

The suit follows Rosli's article on Feb 19, which the PM claimed it contained words which referred to him with malicious intent that he had abused the fund belonging to 1MDB.

In the article, Harakah claimed Najib's step-son was also the beneficiary of 1MDB.

Najib also alleged that Taufek failed to practice ‘responsible journalism’ to verify the validity of the words written and failed to take measures to obtain any clarification from him before publishing the words.

The PM is claiming an unspecified amount of general, aggravated and exemplary damages, interests and an injunction to prevent the defendants from spreading the article. He also wanted the defendants to tender a written apology for publication in the press.

Najib had previously sent a letter of demand in February following the publication of the Harakah article.