KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 7): The High Court has today fixed Nov 26 to hear Bagan Member of Parliament and former finance minister Lim Guan Eng and his son Clint Lim Way Chau's interrogatories application on former Umno Youth executive council member Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris on whether he is the infamous blogger "Papagomo".
The DAP secretary-general and his son had posed three questions in their interrogatories application for Wan Azri to answer before their defamation suit proceeds.
These questions are whether Wan Azri is Papagomo, whether he uses the Facebook account under the name of Papa Azri and whether he did indeed publish the defamatory statements on his Facebook page.
Guan Eng and Way Chau's lawyer Simon Murali told theedgemarkets.com when contacted he has received instructions to file these questions following case management before Justice Datuk Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril where the court has fixed Nov 26 to hear the application.
Meanwhile, according to Murali, Wan Azri is said to be contemplating filing an application to strike out the interrogatories application.
An interrogatories application is a discovery tool before trial where the parties could list down questions which the other party would be required to answer.
Wan Azri, who had earlier this month been suspended from Umno for a period of six years, had in June denied in his defence statement to the suit that he is Papagomo.
This had led to the proposed interrogatories application which was to be filed.
Guan Eng and his son had filed the suit against Wan Azri on Oct 15 last year for spreading false news about them.
The suit was filed because the blogger alleged that Guan Eng and Way Chau had taken RM2 million in undeclared cash into Singapore.
"A national Umno Youth leader using the name 'Papa Azri' started off this malicious lie by stating that I flew to Singapore on Feb 29, after my son was hauled up at Singapore Airport for bringing in RM2 million cash without proper declaration," Guan Eng had said in a statement in filing the suit last year.
Guan Eng and Way Chau are seeking general, aggravated and exemplary damages; interest on awarded damages; costs, and any other order deemed fit, appropriate and reasonable by the High court in the defamation suit.
Prior to this, PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had several years back filed a defamation suit against Wan Azri where the court at the trial made the discovery that Wan Azri is indeed Papagomo.