The prosecution has amended its criminal defamation charge against Pandan MP and PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli at the Magistrate’s Court in Kuala Lumpur today.

This is after Rafizi sought to have the charge struck out on the grounds that it was defective.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Mohd Abazafree Mohd Abbas informed magistrate Umzarul Ain Nur Umar in today's proceedings that the prosecution agreed that there had been an oversight in the framing of the charge last year, and sought to amend the charge.

The DPP, who heads the general crimes and public order unit within the prosecution division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers, then applied for the amended charge to be read to Rafizi.

Rafizi was charged last April with criminal defamation of Tabung Haji through an online post, after a staff of the pilgrimage fund filed a complaint on Feb 18 last year.

Yesterday, his lawyer Gobind Singh Deo argued before the magistrate that the charge faced by Rafizi was defective as the prosecution did not highlight which articles or paragraphs in Rafizi’s statement on Tabung Haji were defamatory.

There were originally more than 50 pages attached to the appendix on the original charge sheet when Rafizi was charged last year, compared to 17 pages on the amended charge today.

The amended charge states that four paragraphs are deemed defamatory in a Facebook post by Rafizi on Feb 9 last year, titled “Analisa Kewangan Tabung Haji 2009-2015”. 

In two paragraphs, Rafizi questions the reserves of Tabung Haji for the financial year ending 2015, and the profit it obtained, amounting to RM3.5 billion, which had been announced by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom. 

The other two paragraphs relate to his allegation that the amount of new deposits had surpassed withdrawals, and that bonus payments for 2012 were announced because it was nearing election time, while bonuses in 2014 were given out to downplay the 1MDB scandal.

Rafizi claimed trial to the charge after it was read out to him.

His lawyer Gobind also applied for new trial dates today. His rationale was that the charge was newly changed  and that they had yet to receive any documents related to the amended charge.

“I ask for a case management day to be fixed first,” Gobind said.

Magistrate Umzarul Ain fixed Sept 26 for case management for the documents to be handed over.

She also fixed new hearing dates for the amended charge on Nov 28 and 29, 2017, and Jan 4 and 5, 2018.