KUALA LUMPUR: The owner of the "N13 Kuang" Facebook account, Mohd Fauzan Madzlan, has been ordered by the High Court to file his defence statement to answer a defamation lawsuit brought by Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil.
Fauzan, who is one of three defendants, must file the document on or before Jan 15 in the suit which the Lembah Pantai member of parliament had filed after accusations that he (Fahmi) had made a political speech at Masjid Nurul Yaqin in Kampung Melayu Seri Kundang in Rawang in July.
Fahmi's lawyer, Asheeq Ali Sethi Alivi, said his client must file his answers to Fauzan's document on or before Jan 29.
He added that the court had set Feb 7 for case management for both parties to update the filing status and interlocutory filing, if any.
Asheeq Ali said this after today's case management proceedings conducted via e-review before senior assistant registrar Nur Shasha Hidayah Nor Azahar.
Apart from Fauzan, Fahmi had on Sept 5 filed lawsuits against blogger Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, better known as Papagomo and independent speaker Ahmad Dusuki Abd Rani.
The trio had allegedly accused Fahmi of giving a political talk in at the mosque.
Fahmi's statement of claim read that 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 words were posted on Wan Muhammad Azri's TikTok and Facebook accounts on Aug 1.
Mohd Fauzan had uploaded the defamatory words on his Facebook account while Ahmad Dusuki did the same on his Facebook and Instagram accounts on July 31.
Fahmi described the slanderous statements as baseless and the Selangor Islamic Religious Council had confirmed that he did not give any political speech as accused by the defendants.
Bernama reported 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.
It was also to tarnish his reputation as a member of parliament and a cabinet minister, he said.
Fahmi 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 and the three defendants still maintained the slanderous statements on their social media pages, he added.
Fahmi sought general damages, aggravated or exemplary damages and an injunction to prevent all the defendants from repeating or causing the re-publication of the defamatory statements.
On Aug 1, Selangor police launched an investigation over a picture of Fahmi with the caption claiming he was delivering a political speech in the mosque.
However, Fahmi clarified that he was merely answering the congregation's question about British pop rock band, The 1975, whose acts stirred controversy at the Good Vibes Festival 2023.
On Aug 28, Selangor Islamic Religious Council chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof said an investigation into the matter found that Fahmi had spoken about current issues and not politics, as claimed by some quarters.
He said Fahmi was replying to questions related to act The 1975 and the action taken to end the concert.
Fahmi, he said, provided clear answers to the questions asked by the congregants and did not mention politics in the mosque.
