KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak will apply to strike out a civil suit filed against him and three others by the opposition, after the High Court today ordered them to file their defence against claims of overspending during the 13th General Election, his lawyer said.
Choo Shi Jin, who is part of Najib’s defence team lead by Datuk Hafarizam Harun, said the prime minister will file his application “soon”, though he did not say when.
“The deputy registrar said that since we don’t have the strike out application yet, so she instruct all to file a defence first,” Choo told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
“But we will definitely be filing the strike out application soon, because defence is due on the 14th,” he added.
Earlier today, the High Court ordered Najib, along with Barisan Nasional (BN) Secretary-General Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the Election Commission (EC) to enter their defence ahead of case management, which was set for October 9.
News portal The Malaysian Insider reported that Najib has been given until October 1 to file his defence, while Tengku Adnan was given until September 15 and 1MDB and the EC until September 14.
PKR announced on August 12 that it filed a lawsuit against the prime minister and several others, accusing them of violating election laws on campaign expenses.
According to the party’s central executive council member Sivarasa Rasiah, the suit is jointly-filed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Nurul Izzah Anwar, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Chua Tian Chang and Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
In a report on July 2, US-based daily WSJ, citing documents from Malaysian investigators currently scrutinising the troubled 1MDB’s financials, claimed that a money trail showed that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) was moved among government agencies, banks and companies before it ended up in Najib’s accounts, two months before the 13th general election in May 2013.
It was previously alleged that the funds were used for Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Election 2013 campaigns but detractors have pointed out that this would be illegal as RM2.6 billion far surpasses the legal limit allowed by Malaysia’s election laws.
Nurul Izzah said then that it was obvious that the RM2.6 billion was 26 times more than what BN was legally allowed to spend in the election under the Election Offences Act 1954, adding that the lawsuit will reveal that the ruling coalition was engaged in “all kinds of bribes and corrupt tactics.”
Under Section 19 of the Act, candidates are permitted to spend no more than RM200,000 when contesting a federal seat and RM100,000 for state constituencies.
