Pua to question Court of Appeal’s judicial notice
KUALA LUMPUR: Damansara member of parliament Tony Pua will be questioning the Court of Appeal’s judicial notice, which stated that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had committed no wrongdoing in relation to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) issue.
Pua’s counsel, Tan Ch’eng Leong, said his client would raise the judicial notice through a leave application at the Federal Court to appeal against an interim injunction obtained by Najib in his defamation suit against Pua.
The suit was in relation to a live video posted on Pua’s Facebook page on the tabling of the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, also known as Act 355.
“The judicial notice will be pursued as it is of public importance and may affect other cases,” Tan said, adding that the appeal by his client would be heard at the Federal Court on June 20.
Tan said this after the matter came up in the chambers of High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab yesterday.
Zaki fixed June 28 for case management of the suit.
Counsel Nor Hazira Abu Haiyan represented Najib.
On Feb 14, the Court of Appeal rejected Pua’s appeal to lift an interim injunction obtained by Najib to restrain Pua from further publishing the video clip containing alleged slanderous allegations, which Najib claimed was defamatory.
A three-man Court of Appeal panel had unanimously dismissed the appeal after taking into consideration the judicial notice that the attorney-general (A-G) had made a decision that Najib had committed no wrongdoing in relation to the 1MDB scandal.
The panel also found that investigations had been carried out by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), police, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the results, which have been disclosed to the public by A-G and MACC, cleared Najib of any criminal wrongdoing.
On Aug 4, the High Court here granted Najib an injunction order to restrain Pua from repeating the allegations.
Najib had, in his personal capacity, filed the suit on April 21, last year, against Pua over a live video on Act 355. He said that on April 6, the same year, Pua made a statement at Parliament, which was recorded.
Najib claimed that the twominute recording containing the statement was uploaded, on the same day, on Pua’s Facebook page, titled “BN abandons all Bills to give precedence to Pas RUU355 Private Member’s Bill”.
He alleged that the statement in the video was directed at him and that there was malice in Pua’s libellous statement, and that it was made with the intention to defame him.
Najib is seeking general, aggravated and exemplary damages, as well as an injunction to prevent Pua, either by himself or any of his agents, in whatever way, from publishing further statements that were defamatory in nature.