KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — The High Court has ordered Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, better known as Papagomo, to enter an appearance in the lawsuit filed by Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil within 14 days from today.
Fahmi, the Lembah Pantai MP cum the Communications and Digital Minister, filed the suit against the blogger and two others on September 5 over an allegation that he gave a political speech at a mosque in Rawang, Selangor.
Lawyer Asheeq Ali Sethi Alivi, representing Fahmi, said Deputy Registrar Aisyaf Falina Abdullah ordered the blogger to enter his appearance during the case management conducted online today.
Azri was given until December 5 to do so, he said, adding that on November 6, the court ordered the summons client to be served to Azri through a substituted service notification in the newspaper as their attempts to serve the summons to the blogger had been futile.
“The notice was published in The Star newspaper today,” said the lawyer when contacted.
The court set December 8 for case management for the plaintiff to inform the court whether the defendant has entered his appearance or otherwise.
Meanwhile, Fahmi, in a Facebook post today, said his lawyer has been trying to contact Azri for the past few months.
“This is related to the slanderous statement made by the individual (Azri) against me before the state election in August,” he said.
In addition to Azri, Fahmi also named independent speaker Ahmad Dusuki Abd Rani and the owner of the Facebook account “N13 Kuang”, Mohd Fauzan Madzlan, as defendants in the lawsuit.
Based on the statement of claim, the three defendants had published defamatory words by accusing him of abusing a place of worship, which is a mosque, to campaign for an election and had acted contrary to the orders of His Royal Highness, the Sultan of Selangor.
He claimed the defamatory words were posted on Azri’s Tik Tok and Facebook accounts on August 1, while on July 31, they were posted on Mohd Fauzan’s Facebook account and Ahmad Dusuki’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
According to Fahmi, the slanderous statements were baseless, and the Selangor Islamic Religious Council had confirmed he did not give any political speech as accused by the defendants.
He claimed the defamatory statements were made to defame his good name to gain cheap publicity, create a sensation in the national political arena, and tarnish his reputation as an MP and as a Cabinet minister.
As such, Fahmi is seeking general damages, aggravated or exemplary damages, and an injunction to prevent all the defendants from repeating or causing the re-publication of the defamatory statements.
— Bernama
