THE Court of Appeal has fixed February 7 to deliver its decision on Khairy Jamaluddin’s appeal against Anwar Ibrahim’s defamation suit over a statement of immoral character filed against him 14 years ago.

A three-member panel comprising judges Lee Swee Seng, Darryl Goon Siew Chye and Ghazali Cha fixed the date in virtual proceedings today.

“Thank you to both parties for the written submissions provided to this court and also for oral submissions. We will require some time to deliberate on the matter. We fix February 7 for decision,” said Justice Lee after hearing lengthy submissions from Khairy’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Anwar’s lawyer Gopal Sri Ram.

The panel of judges also fixed next Monday for both parties to file written submissions for costs.

On March 7, 2008, Anwar, who is PKR president, sued Khairy, who was then youth and sports minister and Umno Youth vice chief, for allegedly uttering defamatory words about him during a ceramah at Lembah Pantai on February 20 the same year.

The clip was later published in several news portals.

In September 2017, High Court judge Azizul Azmi Adnan allowed Anwar’s suit against Khairy and found Khairy liable for defamation and therefore ordered Khairy to pay RM150,000 in general damages to Anwar.

The judge also dismissed Khairy’s application to amend his statement of defence to say that his remark was a fair comment.

Khairy subsequently filed an appeal against the High Court ruling but in February 2018, the Court of Appeal struck it out after allowing Anwar’s counsel’s application to annul the notice of appeal.

On December 15, 2020, the Federal Court allowed Khairy’s appeal for his case to be reheard on its full merits at the Court of Appeal.

Earlier, Sri Ram submitted that the words uttered by the appellant were defamatory to Anwar. – Bernama, January 17, 2022.