KUALA LUMPUR: Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament Tony Pua Kiam Wee is appealing the removal of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) reference in court papers supporting his bid to strike out Datuk Seri Najib Razak's defamation suit.
Pua's counsel Gobind Singh Deo today confirmed that his client filed the appeal on Friday last week, against a High Court ruling in Prime Minister Najib's legal action against him (Pua).
Gobind was speaking to reporters after the court decided not to proceed with hearing of Pua's bid to strike out Najib's legal action.
Gobind said the court agreed to not go ahead with the hearing pending disposal of Pua's appeal at the Court of Appeal.
"The application (to strike out Najib's suit) is dependent on the (Pua's) affidavit's contents (which had been struck out)," said Gobind after the matter in the chambers of judge Datuk Roslan Abu Bakar.
Najib's counsel Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun confirmed the outcome.
On May 5, the High Court allowed Najib's application to remove two paragraphs in Pua's affidavit and two exhibits on 1MDB.
The paragraphs and exhibits referred to write-ups and the Companies Commission of Malaysia document search results on 1MDB, which is a government-owned strategic development fund.
Among the articles that Pua was relying on were ones originating from online blog reports on 1MDB.
Najib, who is Barisan Nasional chairman, is suing Pua, who is DAP national publicity secretary, over his (Pua) remarks made at a DAP fundraising dinner on Nov 3, 2014.
The lawsuit had also named Chan Chee Kong, the owner of Mediarakyat.net online portal, as co-defendant.