Dzulkefly Ahmad is suing Najib Razak over a Facebook post published five years ago alleging that the health minister had practised nepotism by securing a board appointment for his daughter on Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia.
KUALA LUMPUR: Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad’s defamation lawsuit against former prime minister Najib Razak in the High Court here may come to an amicable conclusion soon.
Najib’s lawyer, Farhan Shafee, told reporters that both parties were “moving towards an amicable resolution” of the matter. However, the lawyer provided no details on what the resolution would entail.
“We will update the court again on the next case management,” he said, adding that the matter would come before the court once more on April 4.
Both Dzulkefly and Najib were present in court earlier today.
Dzulkefly filed the suit in his private capacity on Dec 31, 2021, over Najib’s claim that the health minister had practised nepotism by securing the appointment of his daughter, Nurul Iman, to the board of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia two years earlier.
In his statement of claim, Dzulkefly alleged that Najib’s Facebook post on Aug 24, 2020, subsequently reported by a Malay daily, had defamed him.
The Kuala Selangor MP said the post was still visible as of November 2021.
Dzulkefly claimed that Nurul’s appointment was made before he became health minister in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government. He said she was reappointed by the microcredit organisation in 2021.
Najib is relying on the defence of justification, qualified privilege, and fair comment.
He said the Facebook post was accompanied by a Sinar Harian screenshot published on Jan 28, 2019 – 19 months before Najib’s Facebook post. Najib also claimed that the post was to allow the public a fair assessment of the issue.
The former prime minister said his post was intended to highlight the “hypocrisy” of the PH coalition, which had made allegations of nepotism and cronyism in political appointments previously made by Barisan Nasional.
It was intended to show that such appointments also took place in various government-linked companies when PH ran the government between May 2018 and February 2020, Najib’s defence statement added.
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