Justice John Louis O’Hara dismissed the duo’s application to strike out the lawsuit on the grounds that the suit has reasonable cause of action and was not suitable to be dismissed.

“The slander suit is not frivolous, scandalous and vexatious,” he said.

The court ordered Khalid and Ismail to pay a total of RM5,000 cost to Izzah.

Justice O’Hara fixed the trial date from May 8 to 11 next year.

“The case management to sort out the relevant documents will be on July 25,” he said.

He added, “No more interlocutory applications will be entertained unless there are special circumstances.”

Nurul Izzah’s lawyer, Shahid Adli Kamarudin, informed the court that his client will be the only witness to testify.

Senior federal counsel Alice Loke Yee Ching, for Khalid and Ismail, said both of them will take the witness stand.

Nurul Izzah sued Khalid and Ismail last year for allegedly defaming her by claiming she had committed ‘treason’ by meeting Princess Jacel Kiram of Sulu. They allegedly accused her of being a ‘traitor’.

Nurul Izzah, who is also PKR Vice-President, is seeking general and aggregated damages as well as injunctions against Khalid and Ismail to stop them from making any further defamatory statements against her.