KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak are in talks to resolve the suit filed by the Health Minister against the former Prime Minister over a post on cronyism on his Facebook account.
Lawyer Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee, who represents Najib, told reporters after the case proceedings in the chambers of High Court Judicial Commissioner Arziah Mohamed Apandi.
“The parties are moving towards an amicable solution. We have been discussing the matter and case management is fixed on April 7,” said the lawyer.
Meanwhile, Dzulkefly when met by reporters said “We are discussing”.
Previously, the court had set the trial of the suit to begin today.
In January 2022, Dzulkefly filed the suit in a personal capacity, claiming that Najib uploaded a defamatory post on his Facebook on August 24, 2020 regarding the issue of cronyism, along with an attachment of a screenshot of a Sinar Harian article dated January 28, 2019 with a picture of the plaintiff’s face.
He claimed that the statement, among other things, meant that the plaintiff (Dzulkefly) practised cronyism by offering positions or appointments to relatives, without going through any objective assessment and ability for a position in government or private companies.
The plaintiff claimed that Najib as the defendant published the defamatory post with the intention of attacking his personality, degrading and humiliating him, as well as being politically motivated with the express intention of defaming and damaging his reputation.
Najib in his defence statement filed on March 29, 2022 claimed that the post on the issue of cronyism on his Facebook account had nothing to do with Dzulkefly but referred to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) party coalition.
