A lawyer representing carpet dealer Deepak Jaikishian informed the Court of Appeal today that his client is withdrawing his appeal against a High Court order that he be cross-examined by the lawyers of A Santamil Selvi and her children.

Deepak 's lawyer, Vinod Kamalanathan, told Malaysiakini that notice of discontinuance of the appeal was filed yesterday.

Court of Appeal deputy registrar Hanie Dzatul Akhmar Zulkefli was informed of this during case management today.

"Following that, Hanie said the matter would be brought to the Court of Appeal on July 11," he said.

Last February, High Court judge Hue Siew Kheng had directed Deepak to be cross-examined by Santamil's lawyers, led by Gopal Sri Ram, on two of his conflicting defence statements.

Santamil is the widow of the late private investigator P Balasubramaniam, formerly with the Malaysian police and later a major witness in the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu in Shah Alam.

Hue had also last month accepted Deepak's application to replace the senior lawyer then representing him, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, with Vinod.

On Oct 25 last year, Hue accepted the first defence statement filed by Deepak, which was also given to lawyer Americk Sidhu, representing Santamil.

The first defence was not originally filed in court. The second defence was filed by Shafee's firm to the High Court on Nov 7 last year.

Deepak had then said this showed that he was forced to appoint Shafee.

He also noted that his first defence statement was consistent with what he said in press conferences in 2012.

"I am glad I filed the first defence," the businessperson said, adding that Shafee was appointed by "someone".

Santamil and her children filed the suit against then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor, and six others, including Deepak and Najib's three siblings.

They claimed injury and loss of income following the family's exile to India from 2008 to 2013, after Santamil's late husband PI Bala made his statutory declarations.

They claimed they were forced to flee the country because they feared for their safety following Bala's first and second statutory declarations to the authorities on the murder of Altantuya.