KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has rejected an application by egg importing company J&E Advance Tech Sdn Bhd to obtain leave to start contempt of court proceedings against former international trade and industry minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.
Lawyer Zarifah Zuhayra Zakaria said Judicial Commissioner Leong Wai Hong rejected the application on the grounds that Azmin's witness statement draft as a defendant in the case had not yet been accepted as evidence in court.
"The plaintiff's request to start contempt of court proceedings as a whole involves the issue of admissibility of Azmin's draft witness statement; the process has not yet been fulfilled during the trial stage.
"The draft was only shown to Azmin to confirm that it was his statement but did not pass another stage where it had to be signed by Azmin.
"Although the witness statement had been filed before, it did not go through the proper processes, so it remains a draft and not accepted as evidence in court," said Zarifah Zuhayra when met by reporters outside the court after proceedings in chamber on Monday (Sept 2).
In the meantime, Zarifah Zuhayra said the court also rejected J&E Advance Tech's application to recall Azmin for extended cross-examination in the trial of the suit which was closed on May 17.
"Both applications were rejected with a total cost of RM10,000," said the lawyer.
The court set Sept 17 for the parties involved to file written submissions and Oct 16 for oral submissions.
J&E Advance Tech filed the ex-parte application on May 23 on the allegation that Azmin had committed fraud in the court by filing a new defendant's witness statement on the second day of the trial on May 17 with the intention of deceiving and misleading the court and the parties involved.
The company claimed that Azmin had failed to present a reason for the delay in presenting new evidence on the second day of the trial while the court had ordered the filing of pre-trial documents on or before Dec 30, 2023.
Lawyer Bhavanash Sharma, representing J&E Advance Tech, confirmed that his party will file an application to postpone the proceedings of the suit case since his party will file an appeal against both decisions.
J&E Advance Tech Sdn Bhd filed a lawsuit against Mohamed Azmin on April 12, 2023, alleging that the company obtained a contract through direct negotiations with the government to import eggs from India.
The company claimed that Mohamed Azmin had made and published a speech defaming the company in his "Ceramah Perdana – Solidarity Against Tyranny" at Taman Melewar here on March 11, 2023, and his statement had been reproduced by print and electronic media including YouTube. – Bernama
