PERAK PKR chief Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak’s defamation suit against Muhammad Yusoff Rawther has yet to be served because of the Chinese New Year holidays, said lawyer T. Kumar.

The papers were filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court registry on Friday, Kumar said.

“The only reason it was called today was because it was an administrative matter. They just want to reclassify the suit due to some changes in the cause paper,” he told reporters after appearing before deputy registrar Rumaizah Baharom this morning.

A cause paper is a summary describing the defamation suit to the court.

Further case management dates will be set later after the cause papers have been served, said Kumar.

Farhash, in the suit, said Yusoff maliciously published the defamatory words against him with the knowledge and intent that the words will be carried by local media, and that the related video recording will be uploaded to Facebook and other social media platforms.

Yusoff is accused of making half-a-dozen impugned statements against Farhash, including calling him “jahat” (malicious), “ganas” (violent), “keji” (disreputable), “kejam” (cruel) and “kaki pukul” (bully).

Yusoff allegedly made the statements on December 4 last year, in Penang, which were posted on Facebook, according to the statement of claim.

Apart from seeking general, aggravated and exemplary damages, Farhash is also seeking an injunction to restrain Yusoff, a former research assistant to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, from publishing defamatory words against him.

Yusoff was allegedly sexually assaulted by Anwar and told the media police failed to act on his report, accusing Farhash of assaulting him at Anwar’s office in Petaling Jaya last May.

The Attorney-General’s Chamber recently dropped his sexual assault case against the party president due to a lack of evidence. – January 28, 2020.