Friday January 26, 2007
Blogger applies to strike out suit
KUALA LUMPUR: Ahirudin Attan has applied to strike out a libel suit filed against him by The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP) and four of its current and former editors.
Ahirudin, who is being sued for 48 articles posted on his blog Rocky’s Bru, claimed that the statement of claims supporting the suit was “fatally deficient”.
“The plaintiffs failed to state the particulars of the sting arising from each article. The defendant cannot adequately defend himself because of this uncertainty,” Ahirudin, who is popularly known as Rocky, said in his application.
Ahirudin, a former editor of The Malay Mail and Sunday Mail, which are part of the NSTP group, also said his accusers were going on a “fishing expedition” and abusing the court process by claiming there were more offending articles, which they were not naming, apart from the 48.
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Defendants: Ahirudin and Ooi leaving the High Court in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. |
The judge had scheduled yesterday to hear the plaintiffs’ application for an inter-parte injunction but this was deferred pending the outcome of the bid to strike out the suit.
Ahirudin’s counsel Edmund Bon will appear before Justice Hishamuddin on Monday to state his client’s stance on an issue raised by NSTP’s lawyer Datuk Cecil Abraham.
Abraham had questioned whether the articles and comments posted on the blog after the suit was filed would be prejudicial to the case.
The plaintiffs, save for Syed Faisal, are suing another blogger Jeff Ooi over 13 articles posted on Ooi’s blog Screenshots. They obtained an ex-parte injunction against Ooi on Jan 11.
High Court judge Justice Abdul Malik Ishak has fixed Tuesday to hear the plaintiffs’ application for an inter-parte injunction against Ooi.
Counsel Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said Ooi also intended to apply to strike out the suit.
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