Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that his client Lim Guan Eng will be applying to set aside attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali's contempt proceedings against him.

He also told the court that the Penang chief minister had instructed that a striking out application be filed if he was not successful in setting it aside.

The matter came up for case management before Justice Hanipah Farikullah in her chambers.

Apandi was granted leave by Justice Hanipah to initiate contempt proceedings against Lim on Sept 21.

"We have not filed the applications but we will do it soon."

Gobind said for this purpose he wanted more time to be set for them to transcribe the press conference held by Lim, which the AG had alleged was contemptuous.

The AG's Chambers submitted two recordings of the press conference held while Guan Eng's lawyers would file in one copy later.

“We told the court that we will be transcribing the PC as we feel that the chambers should take the PC as a whole. We will then give a copy of the transcript and hope that we can agree on it,” he said.

The press conference was held by Lim in relation to his two charges of corruption.

Justice Hanipah, Gobind said, had fixed Nov 25 as case management for them to submit the copy of the transcript.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan appeared for the AG's Chambers.

Lim claims charge a conspiracy

In the AG's originating summons filed on Aug 18, the AG claimed that Lim had allegedly committed contempt by making statements that the charges against him were a conspiracy that would put him in jail and the statements taken as a whole gave a clear meaning that the “courts is also involved in the alleged conspiracy” on “trumped up corruption charges”.

The press conference was held after Lim launched the ‘Dr Wu Lian Teh Symposium’ by the Penang Institute in July at Jalan Brown, Georgetown.

Apandi is seeking to commit Lim to jail for contempt of court for issuing statements through social and/or print media that he knows or should have known would threaten the administration of justice, undermine public confidence in the judiciary, and insult the dignity and integrity of Malaysian courts.

He is also seeking for Lim to pay the costs incurred by the committal proceedings, and any other reliefs deemed fit by the court.

“(This is) to ensure that any action that belittles the court, its judges, and the administration of justice should not be let off easily,” the originating summons read.

“The public’s trust in the judicial system in Malaysia should be defended, especially when it comes to cases that are still pending in court.”

The AG further stated that he had a duty to protect public interest and to ensure that the judiciary and the administration of justice in Malaysia was protected and not ridiculed, insulted, or belittled easily, to the point where there was doubt on whether cases were being adjudicated with fairness and justice.