KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has set Jan 18 next year for case management of a defamation suit filed by DAP national chairman Karpal Singh against Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd.
Deputy registrar K. Pavani set the date in her chambers upon meeting both parties Thursday.
Lawyer Rahmath Nisa Segu Alavubin acted for the plaintiff while counsel Mohana Kumar Menon acted for Utusan Melayu.
Karpal had on Sept 20 last year filed an RM10mil defamation suit against Utusan Melayu, claiming that the defendant, which publishes and prints Malay daily Utusan Malaysia, had defamed him through an article on Aug 25 that year.
In the statement of claim, he said the words in the article were highly malicious as he had not uttered them in his welcoming address at the 15th DAP national congress on Aug 24.
The Member of Parliament for Bukit Gelugor said the offending words implied that he rejected Islam as the official religion of the country.
Karpal said the words also implied that he was anti-national, a threat to national security and disloyal to the country.
Besides that, the words also portrayed him as irresponsible, reckless and unfit to hold public office.
He said the article was baseless and gravely injured his professional and political reputation.
Karpal said he had sent a notice to the defendant to unconditionally retract the words and apologise to him without prejudice to his right to commence legal proceedings.
He said the defendant had complied by publishing a complete retraction and apology on Aug 26 accepting that the words had no basis.
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