KUALA LUMPUR: Controversial blogger Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, also known as "Papagomo", has been instructed to submit his response to a defamation suit by Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
High Court deputy registrar Aisyaf Falina Abdullah during a case management today said the plaintiff (Azri) must file the document before Dec 5.
Fahmi's counsel Asheeq Ali Sethi Alivi said the court on Nov 6 had ordered that the suit be served through substituted service as it could not be delivered to Azri directly.
He said the plaintiff would serve the suit through an English newspaper today.
He said the court had set Dec 8 for the next case management.
The Lembah Pantai member of parliament filed the suit on Sept 5 and named Azri as well as independent speaker Ahmad Dusuki Abd Rani and the owner of the Facebook account "N13 Kuang", Mohd Fauzan Madzlan, as the defendants.
Based on the statement of claim, Fahmi said 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 Majesty the Sultan of Selangor.
Fahmi claimed that the defamatory statements were posted on the TikTok and Facebook accounts of Wan Muhammad Azri on Aug 1, and on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Mohd Fauzan and Ahmad Dusuki on July 31.
According to Fahmi, the slanderous statements were baseless and the Selangor Islamic Religious Council had confirmed that he did not give any political speech as accused by the defendants.
He also claimed that the defamatory statements were made with the aim of defaming his good name in order to gain cheap publicity or create a sensation in the national political arena, as well as to tarnish his reputation as a member of parliament and a Cabinet Minister.
He said letters of demand had been sent to the three individuals for them to withdraw the defamatory statements, pay damages and publish an apology to him, but none had done as requested.
According to Fahmi, the three defendants still maintained the slanderous statements on their social media pages.
As such, he is seeking general damages, aggravated or exemplary damages, and an injunction to prevent all the defendants from repeating or causing the republication of the defamatory statements.
He is also seeking the three defendants to withdraw the defamatory statements through their social media accounts and to make an apology through all mass media and online media where the content of the apology must be agreed upon by him.