KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has denied bids by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and a cabinet minister to strike out a defamation suit against them by PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar.
Judge Datuk John Louis O'Hara today dismissed the striking-out applications by IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
O'Hara ruled that Nurul Izzah's legal action disclosed reasonable cause of action, and was neither frivolous, vexatious, abuse of court process nor scandalous.
He said the court was of the view that the suit should be allowed to go for full hearing, and ordered Khalid and Ismail Sabri each to pay RM2,500 cost to Nurul Izzah.
O'Hara however advised parties to try mediation to resolve the defamation suit, and set case management on July 18 to update the court on the outcome of settlement talks.
He also set four days from May 8 next year for full hearing of the suit.
Counsel Shahid Adli Kamarudin acted for Nurul Izzah while senior federal counsel Alice Loke Yee Ching appeared for Khalid and Ismail Sabri.
On Nov 26 last year, Nurul Izzah, who is Lembah Pantai member of parliament, filed the legal action.
She is suing Khalid and Ismail Sabri over statements linked to her meeting with self-styled Sulu princess Jacel Kiram in Manila, Philippines, on Nov 9 last year.
Nurul Izzah claimed that Khalid had uttered defamatory words during a press conference at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman here on Nov 22 last year.
She claimed Ismail Sabri had uttered similar defamatory words during a media event in his Bera parliamentary constituency in Pahang on the same day.
Nurul Izzah said the duo's statements were not only carried by television news networks and newspapers, but had also spread online.
She claimed the words implied, among others, that she was involved in the Sulu intrusion in Sabah three years ago, that she was involved in terrorism and had betrayed the country.