KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 — Berjaya Corporation Berhad founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan today obtained a court order to temporarily stop Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor from making and repeating alleged defamatory remarks against the businessman, until the end of Tan’s defamation lawsuit against the politician.
Pierre Chuah, the lawyer representing Tan and Berjaya Corporation Berhad’s subsidiary Berjaya Land Berhad, told Malay Mail that the High Court in Shah Alam granted the court order this morning.
Judicial commissioner Choong Yeow Choy this morning made the court order by issuing injunctions to stop Sanusi from making, publishing, repeating or spreading the same or similar defamatory remarks in the defamation suit — either through himself or his agents or representatives — against Tan and Berjaya Land.
The injunctions will apply until the High Court in Shah Alam hears and decides on Tan’s and Berjaya Land’s defamation lawsuit against Sanusi, or until the High Court gives a further court order on this.
According to Chuah, the High Court’s injunctions were granted on an ex parte application dated August 9 by Tan and Berjaya Land.
Chuah’s colleagues Chuar Kia Lin and Lew Wei Shing represented Tan and Berjaya Land in the court proceedings today where the injunctions were granted.
Ex parte applications are when only one side makes an application to the court, which means the court would hear only the applicant (Tan and Berjaya Land) and not the other side.
Chuah said the High Court is scheduled to have an inter parte hearing next Friday regarding the injunctions, which means the court will be hearing both sides and Sanusi will have a chance to oppose the injunctions against him.
The defamation lawsuit itself is still scheduled for case management on September 4.
On August 8, Tan and Berjaya Land filed the defamation suit against Sanusi, where the two sought for the court to order the Kedah politician to pay compensation over his remarks in an August 2 speech in relation to land in Selangor.
In the defamation suit, Tan and Berjaya Land are also seeking for the High Court to issue an injunction to restrain or stop Sanusi from making the same or similar defamatory remarks against them.
They said Sanusi had made the alleged defamatory remarks during an election campaign speech on August 2 at the “Jelajah Mega PN Best” event or “PN Best Sayangi Kedah Sejahtera Mega Tour” at Dataran Darulaman, Jitra, Kedah.
Both Tan and Berjaya Land denied the allegations made by Sanusi in his August 2 speech as “completely untrue”.
