The publisher of the Sabah newspaper Daily Express applied to strike out an RM10 million suit from Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob over the turtle egg issue.

Sabah Publishing House Sdn Bhd's lawyer Bhag Singh said because the suit was filed in the High Court of Malaya, despite the report being based in Sabah, it came down to an issue of jurisdiction.

“We have two High Courts, namely Malaya and Sabah and Sarawak. It also boils down to the Malaysia Agreement and constitutional issue following this,” Bhag told Malaysiakini.

The matter came up for case management before High Court judge Nordin Hassan in Kuala Lumpur today, and he fixed Oct 9 to hear the application.

Ismail filed the suit last March over the Daily Express' publication of the articles “Minister and Sabah YB have yet to comply: Dept,” “Beluran turtle eggs dinner: Findings left to the AG,” and “Explain turtle egg confusion first, Lim tells Minister” between Jan 24 and Sept 9 last year.

The Bera MP claimed the articles implied that he was evading responsibility, had no respect for the Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1967, and showed complete disregard for the investigation process despite being a federal minister.

Ismail complained that the newspaper continued to publish the articles without seeking his comments or views, nor those of relevant government departments as to whether he refused to cooperate with investigators.

The minister insisted that the reports were false, baseless and published maliciously, without seeking his comments or views.

His lawyers were reportedly instructed to seek an apology from Sabah Publishing House in March, but the publisher maintained that the reports were neither inaccurate nor published mala fide (bad faith).