KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here yesterday set Jan 27 to decide on a defamation suit filed by Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim against Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd (Utusan Melayu) and its chief editor, Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak, for publishing two articles on his comments to BBC during an interview on homosexual laws.
Justice Datuk V T Singham set the date after hearing clarification on several matters by lawyers for both parties.
Lawyer Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, representing Utusan Melayu, said the society had the right to know what was said by Dr Hasan Ali about Anwar and that the articles were published by Utusan because the matter was of public interest.
He said Anwar should have sued Dr Hasan, instead of Utusan Melayu, if he was not satisfied with the articles.
Meanwhile, lawyer N. Surendran, representing Anwar, said the articles were published with malicious intent and that Utusan Melayu did not take the initiative to contact Anwar for clarification before doing so.
He said Abdul Aziz was also not confident when testifying during cross-examination.
On Jan 10 this year, Anwar filed a defamation suit seeking RM50 million in damages on an allegation that the defendants had published the two articles on the front page and page 10 of the Utusan Malaysia newspaper, dated Jan 17, 2012, in relation to his BBC interview. — Bernama