Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor today failed to obtain a summary judgment from the High Court in Kuala Lumpur over their defamation suit against Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming of DAP.

This is over a Facebook post alleging that Rosmah participated in a cabinet meeting.

Justice Siti Khadijah Syed Hassan Badjenid dismissed Najib and Rosmah's lawyer Mohd Hafarizam Harun's application of Order 14A to obtain the summary judgment.

She found that the matter should go on trial.

It is also understood that no settlement had been reached today for the matter not to go on trial, after Hafarizam and lawyer M Reza Hassan had a short discussion on this with lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, who appeared for Nga.

Hafarizam, when contacted by Malaysiakini today, said he had received instructions to file an appeal over Justice Siti Khadijah's decision today.

The lawyer wanted the suit to be decided on case law and not go for a full trial under provision of Order 14A of the Rules of Court 2012, as he had told the court at the last session last month that all elements had been met - namely Nga did not deny the posting referred by his client, and the Facebook account is Nga's, as shown in his defence statement.

At the last session, Hafarizam submitted an affidavit of Malacca Chief Minister Idris Haron and senator Sim Kui Hian from SUPP, who said the picture of Najib, Rosmah along with Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai, was taken at a hotel following a visit to China.

The lawyer said the discussion at the meeting on the affidavit centred upon whether Najib and Rosmah should go back following the passing of the Perak sultan, Sultan Azlan Shah, and to return to China (later).

“The discussion centred not on the cabinet but on what is stated previously,” Hafarizam had said.

Najib and Rosmah filed the suit last July, following a Facebook posting Nga made on March 29, purportedly depicting them at a cabinet meeting.

In their defamation action against the Taiping MP, the couple alleged that Nga, in his post, had used the photograph to illustrate that Rosmah had once participated in a cabinet meeting.

They said the photograph was of them with several cabinet ministers and high-ranking Wisma Putra official in a hotel room on a visit to China, and not at a cabinet meeting.

Justice Siti Khadijah then fixed next May 16 to hear Hafarizam's stay application as she had earlier fixed May 16 to 19 for hearing of the case.