THE Kuala Lumpur High Court today set a new date to hear an application by Jamal Md Yunos to adjourn the defamation suit filed by former minister Yeo Bee Yin against him, in connection with the Yayasan Warisan Anak Selangor (Yawas) funds.

Mohammed Nasser Yusof, appearing for Jamal, said his client’s application would be heard on November 4 before judge Rozana Ali Yusoff.

“Yesterday, we received an email from deputy registrar Nor Afidah Idris on the notification of the new date.

“The hearing on the application before Rozana should have been today, but it was postponed after the conditional movement-control order in Selangor, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur was enforced from yesterday until October 27,” he said when contacted today.

The application was filed on September 16 pending the Sg Besar Umno chief’s appeal at the Court of Appeal to strike out the suit.

Jamal filed the appeal following a decision by the high court on August 7 in dismissing his application to strike out the suit.

Meanwhile, Naseer said the case management of his client’s appeal in the Court of Appeal has been fixed for October 22.

On June 14, 2017, Yeo, as the plaintiff, filed the suit seeking RM5 million in compensation from Jamal for his defamatory statement over the alleged abuse of Yawas funds.

In the statement of claim, Yeo, who is also Bakri MP, claimed that Jamal had issued a defamatory statement on March 21, 2017, and that the statement was also published by several newspapers, news portals and on Jamal’s Facebook account.

Yeo claimed that Jamal’s statement, among others, gave the impression she had abused public funds for personal use and painted her as an unethical and unreliable person.

Apart from RM5 million in general damages, Yeo is also seeking compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages and an injunction to prevent Jamal from repeating the allegations. – Bernama, October 15, 2020.