KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 ― Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants Utusan Malaysia to cover his legal costs over the repeated delays in his RM100 million defamation lawsuit against the Umno-owned newspaper.
Anwar's counsel, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, asked High Court Judge Rosilah Yop to award cost as lawyers representing the Malay language daily delayed filing the appeal on the decision to recuse the presiding judge.
“We are asking for cost for having wasted four trial days,” Ambiga told reporters, after meeting the parties in chambers.
Utusan's lawyer Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin again asked for a stay of proceeding today to appeal against Rosilah's decision to not recuse herself from hearing the case and asked for the trial dates to be vacated pending the hearing at the Court of Appeal's on the matter.
Last week, Rosilah rejected the newspaper's application to recuse her from hearing the case, citing her description of Anwar as a “leading politician” in a separate trial.
Rosilah will decide tomorrow on whether to award cost to Anwar.
In March last year, Anwar sued both Utusan Malaysia and news channel TV3 for RM100 million over reports suggesting he was behind the Sulu invasion of Lahad Datu in Sabah at the time.
