KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — The High Court here today suggested that the defamation suit filed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim against former Permatang Pauh by-election candidate Dr Mazlan Ismail and two others for linking him with corruption, be settled through mediation.
Judge Datuk John Louis O’hara made the suggestion in chambers after meeting lawyer Sangeet Kaur, who is representing Anwar, and lawyer YS Ling who represented Mazlan.
The court set February 22 for case management and fixed May 9 to 13 for the hearing if the mediation effort failed.
Anwar, 64, filed the suit on October 15 last year and named Mazlan as the first defendant and Sistem Televisyen Malaysia (TV3) and Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd as the second and third defendants.
He claimed that Mazlan had called a media conference and had uttered words, which were seriously defamatory and malicious, which implied that he was a person without ethics, a corrupt, had engaged in criminal activities, as well as a dishonest and immoral person.
Anwar claimed that Mazlan had caused TV3 to broadcast the alleged defamatory words on its prime time news, Buletin Utama on August 2, 2013, and Utusan Malaysia to publish it the following day.
Besides general, aggravated and exemplary damages, Anwar is also seeking an injunction to prevent the defendants from repeating or further publishing the alleged defamatory remarks. — Bernama
