KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Maria Chin Abdullah’s legal team will object to Datuk Seri Jamal Yunos’s attempt to call another two former Inspectors-General of Police (IGP) as defence witnesses in her defamation lawsuit against him.
Latheefa Koya, a lawyer representing Maria, said the objection against Jamal’s bid to call in Tun Mohammed Hanif Omar and Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor was due to the “short notice” given.
“We are objecting on two reasons — on late notice and relevancy of two witnesses of this case,” she told reporters when met at court today.
The continued hearing of Maria’s defamation suit against Jamal was initially scheduled for today and tomorrow, but this has been deferred.
Jamal was due to testify this morning in his defence before High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab.
“The judge had taken emergency leave,” Latheefa said.
Case management for the court case will be on March 15, where the new hearing dates are expected to be fixed.
Yesterday, Jamal’s lawyer Mohammed Nasser Yusof said his client has applied to the High Court to call in two additional witnesses to testify regarding the contents of a government White Paper titled “Towards Preserving National Security” that was tabled in Parliament in 1988.
Mohammed Hanif was IGP during the 1974-1994 period, while Abdul Rahim was the head of Bukit Aman’s Secret Branch during 1986-1989.
Maria, in her former position as the chairman of polls reform group Bersih 2.0, filed the defamation lawsuit on October 7, 2016. She resigned from the post this week to enter politics.
Maria said that Jamal had made defamatory remarks on September 28 and October 4, 2016 by allegedly claiming that the Bersih 2.0 movement was infiltrated by the terrorist group Islamic State (IS).
Jamal had also allegedly accused the Bersih 2.0 group of plotting to surround two international airports and key government buildings.
