The tournament director of the National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017 has filed suit against PKR Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin for allegedly defaming him over the issue of a 12-year-old’s attire at the tournament.

Sophian A Yusof, 44, who is also assistant secretary of the Malaysia Chess Federation, filed the suit on Nov 20 last year, with case management coming up today at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

He alleges that a statement issued by Zuraida last April had put him in a bad light, and caused irreparable damage to his reputation.

In the statement, the Ampang MP said that she was "appalled and disgusted” with the actions of Sophian and another member of the tournament’s organising committee.

Sophian (photo) claims that the statement was issued in mala fide, since it implied he was not only incompetent, but also a paedophile who posed a danger to children.

Besides general, special, exemplary and aggravated damages, he is seeking for the statement to be removed from all media, a permanent injunction to prevent its dissemination, and an apology from the PKR lawmaker.

In her defence filed on Jan 18 to have the suit struck out, Zuraida claimed the Reynolds defence (qualified privilege) and fair comment, and insisted that there was no malice in the statement.

She also argued that the statement cited in Sophian’s statement of claim was not produced in full in news reports, and said she was only expressing her opinion that the 12-year-old should not be disallowed from participating due to her choice of attire.

It was reported in May last year that Sophian intended to sue a total of four persons for defamation, including the girl's chess coach Kaushal Khandar. 

The issue first came to light when Kaushal took to Facebook to criticise the championship director and chief arbiter of the tournament, whom he claimed forced the girl to withdraw over her "seductive" dress. 

Following case management today, the matter has been fixed for trial on July 23, 25 and 26 before Justice Rohani Ismail, with April 13 fixed for further case management.

Sophian is represented by Mohd Haris Abdullah, while Shahid Adli Kamarudin appeared for Zuraida.