The High Court in Kuala Lumpur has granted Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak an interim injunction against DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua from repeating the allegedly slanderous remarks.

"With this, the prime minister is protected from being further defamed," Najib's lawyer Mohd Hafarizam Harun told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex in Jalan Duta today.

The interim injunction will stay in place until the case is over. However, the trial dates have not been fixed.

This is because, Hafarizam said, the judge wanted to preserve the status quo in this case.

The injunction prevents further distribution of the video that is the subject matter of the trial, he explained.

Najib filed a defamation suit against Pua over a video he uploaded on his Facebook on April 6 about the tabling of the amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, or Act 355.

Najib claims that the words used in Pua’s Facebook live video post implied that the prime minister had abused his powers by directing the cabinet, through the Dewan Rakyat speaker, to allow the tabling of the amendments to Act 355 by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.

Previously, Najib had obtained an ex-parte interim injunction against Pua pending the application for the status quo of the interim injunction.