KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 — A High Court here today directed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and former MCA president Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik to try resolving their defamation case via mediation first before taking the matter to court.
Najib’s lawyer Datuk Hafarizam Harun confirmed with Malay Mail Onlinethat High Court judge John Louis O’Hara ordered the parties to return to court if mediation fails.
“It’s not that we’re settling. The judge directed that this matter go for mediation, so we’re adhering to the judge’s direction,” Hafarizam said when contacted.
Case management has been set for February 18.
Najib filed a defamation suit against Dr Ling last October over the former transport minister’s reported remarks that the prime minister “has taken people’s money and put it in his own personal accounts.”
Najib has been linked to ongoing corruption investigations on 1Malaysia Development Berhad after US-based Wall Street Journal reported in July some US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) was funnelled through several entities linked to the state-owned firm into the prime minister’s personal bank accounts, two months before the 2013 general elections.
