KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 8): Failing to personally serve former minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali with court documents pertaining to a defamation suit against him, DAP chief Lim Guan Eng on Tuesday (Aug 8) obtained court leave to effect the service via notices in local newspapers.
The Sungai Petani High Court allowed the former Penang chief minister's ex-parte (single-party) application to serve the writ of summons and statement of claim via substituted service. The court papers will also be published on the court notice board.
Lim, a former finance minister, filed the suit in April over Azmin's statements made during a "dialogue session" held in Lunas, Kedah in the run-up to the 15th general election in November last year. The Perikatan Nasional information chief's comments were subsequently published in the media.
The Bersatu politician alleged that Lim's "arrogant" style of leadership had scared the business community when he helmed the Ministry of Finance. Azmin also allegedly said that the Bagan Member of Parliament had used the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) "to chase down" companies linked to MCA.
According to court documents seen by The Edge, Lim claimed that the statements, among others, implied that he had intimidated the Malaysian business community during his tenure as the finance minister, and that he had utilised governmental departments like the IRB to impose pressure on private companies.
Lim claimed that the statements were "vicious lies devoid of any factual substance", and that they had disparaged his personal and professional standing.
He said that during his tenure as the finance minister, MCA was a political rival of his party, but at no time did he commit any act as alleged by Azmin.
Lim is seeking, among others, general damages, including aggravated and exemplary damages. He is also seeking a court order for Azmin to retract his comments and make an apology.
In this suit, Lim is represented by Messrs Simon Murali & Co.
Separately, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had also allowed court papers to be served on Azmin via substituted service in April this year.
The court gave permission for egg importer J&E Advance Tech Sdn Bhd to serve court papers in its defamation suit against Azmin through newspapers, after numerous failed attempts to serve them personally on the politician.