KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been granted two more weeks to file his statement of defence in the RM150 million lawsuit filed by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad against him.
Anwar's lawyer Alliff Benjamin Suhaimi confirmed this after the case management at Shah Alam High Court this morning.
He also said that the court fixed July 7 for the next case management. Previously, Anwar had filed his appearance in the lawsuit on May 17.
Dr Mahathir filed a suit on May 5 through the Law Practice of Rafique at the Shah Alam High Court, with the current prime minister named as the sole defendant.
Dr Mahathir, in the defamation suit, alleged the current prime minister to have defamed him, by accusing him of being racist and enriching himself as well as his family members during his 22-year tenure as prime minister.
He claimed Anwar made the impugned statement in his speech during PKR's special national congress held at the Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam on March 18.
During the special congress, Anwar had referred to someone "who in the past had been in power for 22 years and an additional 22 months" as taking advantage of his position to enrich himself and his family.
Anwar, who did not specify any name during his speech at the party's special congress, also said this person had complained about the Malays losing everything when he was no longer in power.
Dr Mahathir said he had never been accused or convicted of any wrongdoing involving power abuse or misuse of funds either during or after serving as prime minister.
He claimed Anwar made impugned statements that were unfounded and only based on hearsay from the media.
The 97-year-old politician is seeking RM100 million in exemplary damages and RM50 million in general damages.
He also demanded that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman and PKR president issue a written apology and hold a special press conference to apologise for making such a statement.