Court denies Dr M's discovery bid against Anwar in RM150m suit

The Shah Alam High Court denied former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s bid to compel Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to reveal documents being relied on by the latter over claims linked to the former’s amassing of personal riches while in power.

Judicial commissioner Zaharah Hussain this morning dismissed Mahathir’s discovery application for Anwar to hand over documents linked to the former’s RM150 million defamation suit against the latter.

Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali and Alliff Benjamin Suhaimi, who are counsel for Mahathir and his former protege Anwar respectively, confirmed with Malaysiakini the outcome of today’s civil court proceedings.

Rafique said that the court ordered Mahathir to pay RM2,000 in costs to Anwar.

He also said among the brief grounds for today's decision was that the alleged event - raised in Anwar's amended statement of defence - was one that happened long ago and did not state specifically any documentation.

Rafique said, however, that in the event that the stated documents were there, then they would become part of Anwar's defence and needed to be shown during pre-trial case management.

He added that the court has also set Nov 3 for further case management for parties to inform of any other interlocutory applications they had or would be filing.

Through the writ of summons filed on May 3, plaintiff Mahathir is suing PKR president Anwar over the claim made during a policy speech at the party’s special national congress earlier on March 18.

On June 14, Anwar filed his statement of defence, stating he is prepared to prove the allegations' veracity in court.

The Tambun MP cited multiple alleged bail-outs of companies linked to Mahathir’s children, as well as purported cronyism and nepotism during the plaintiff’s first stint as prime minister in the 1990s.

Then through his reply, Mahathir countered that Anwar is a pathological liar who has never furnished proof of the wealth allegations.

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