KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court removed 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) reference in court papers supporting Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament Tony Pua Kiam Wee's defence against Datuk Seri Najib Razak's defamation suit.
Judicial commissioner Datuk Roslan Abu Bakar today allowed the prime minister's application to remove the two 1MDB paragraphs in the affidavit and two exhibits relied on by Pua, who is also DAP's national publicity secretary.
Roslan ruled that the impugned paragraphs and exhibits amounted to hearsay and inadmissible for violating the requirements of the Rules of Court 2012.
The paragraphs and exhibits referred to write-ups and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) document search results on 1MDB.
Among the articles that Pua was relying on were ones originating from online blog reports on 1MDB.
Roslan however dismissed Najib's bid to strike out the fair comment defence of co-defendant Chan Chee Kong, on grounds that the said defence did not amount to statement of fact of the allegation
Chan is the owner of online portal Mediarakyat.net.
Roslan set May 30 to hear Pua's application to strike out the entire legal action by Najib.
Najib, who is also Barisan Nasional chairman, is suing over Pua's remarks made in a speech at a DAP fundraising dinner on Nov 3, 2014.
A recording of the speech by Pua, who was the main speaker at the event, was allegedly uploaded by Chan and/or his agents on the Mediarakyat website and YouTube.
The recording was alleged to have been subsequently shared by Pua and/or his agents on his Facebook account and by Chan and/or his agents on the Mediarakyat Facebook account.