The High Court in Kuala Lumpur has fixed Jan 18 to hear Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua's application to strike out Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's defamation suit.

Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera also fixed Jan 29 to hear Najib's application to strike out certain parts of Media Rakyat owner Chan Chee Kong's defence.

The date was fixed in chambers following case management today.

Najib was represented by lawyer Choo Shi Jin while lawyers Benjamin Aliff and Shahid Adli Kamaruddin appeared for Pua and Chan respectively.

Najib filed the suit against Pua and Chan following a talk delivered by the parliamentarian on 1MDB which was uploaded on Media Rakyat .

Initially, today had been fixed for the hearing of Najib's application to remove certain portions of Chan's defence but this was postponed.

Najib filed the suit against Pua and Chan following a talk delivered by the parliamentarian on 1MDB which was uploaded onto the Media Rakyat portal.

The video recording and Pua's speech implied that Najib had stolen or was going to continue to steal the people's money with regards to the 1MDB project, said Najib in his affidavit.

He added that it also meant that he, as the prime minister and chairperson of 1MDB's advisory board, had abused his powers for personal gain and hence had allegedly betrayed the public.