Najib’s lawyer, Mohd Hafarizam Harun, told reporters today the proposal for an out-of-court settlement of the suit was submitted to Harakahdaily on July 4.
He said the court, however, had fixed July 26 for another case management on the matter because the counsel representing Harakahdaily, the PAS mouthpiece, needed time to get instructions from the client relating to the terms of settlement.
Hafarizam did not disclose the terms of the settlement.
The matter was fixed for case management before Court of Appeal President Md Raus Sharif today in his chambers for the parties to inform the judge on the outcome of the proposal to settle the case.
Lawyers Takiyuddin Hassan and Wan Rohimi Wan Daud appeared for Harakahdaily.
The prime minister sued Harakah managing director Dr Rosli Yaakob and Harakahdaily chief editor Taufek Yahya over an alleged defamatory article written by Rosli and published on Feb 19, 2015.
In his statement of claim, Najib claimed that the article portrayed him as having misused 1MDB funds and that the publication of the article was intended to tarnish his reputation.
He alleged that Taufek failed to practise responsible journalism and did not verify whether the contents in Rosli’s article were accurate before publishing it.
On June 15 this year, Najib obtained an order from the Court of Appeal to temporarily stay the hearing of his defamation suit against Harakahdaily pending disposal of two appeals.
The appeals were on the High Court’s dismissal on April 7 this year of an application by Najib to amend his statement of claim to include statements by Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, and on the High Court’s dismissal on May 23 this year of Najib’s application for the suit to be decided on points of law without going for full trial.