Haniff said Mahathir would attend if the High Court maintained the subpoena filed by Jamal, requiring the former prime minister to give evidence.

“But not this Friday, as the trial is still ongoing with Maria’s witnesses,” he told reporters.

Haniff said he argued before Justice Zaki Abdul Wahab in chambers today that there was no information or evidence that Mahathir could provide based on the suit’s documents produced in court.

“Jamal said Yunus Lebai Ali (Maria’s late husband) was arrested under the Internal Security Act in 1987 when Tun was the home minister. But Jamal did not produce any report for the court on why Yunus was arrested,” Haniff said.

Zaki will deliver his decision on Jan 19 on whether to allow Jamal to call Mahathir to testify.

Jamal, an Umno leader who leads the Red Shirts movement, had summoned Mahathir as his witness in the trial, to prove his defence of fair comment and justification.

However, Mahathir is seeking to set aside the subpoena, saying he has no knowledge of the facts related to the lawsuit over terrorism-related allegations Jamal is accused of having made against Bersih.

The PPBM chairman contends that Jamal’s act of calling him as a witness is merely a political gimmick and an abuse of the court process.

Previously, the court dismissed Jamal’s bid to call Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohamad Fuzi Harun to testify as his witness.

The court held that Fuzi, the Special Branch chief before his promotion, had no knowledge that Maria was being held under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) for 10 days from Nov 18, 2016.

Besides Mahathir and Fuzi, Jamal also wanted to call several individuals such as former IGP Khalid Abu Bakar, Kuala Selangor OCPD Roslan Abdullah and Johor PKR chief Hassan Karim.

In her lawsuit, Maria claimed that Jamal had, on Sept 28, 2016, falsely uttered slanderous words against Bersih during a press conference outside the Putra World Trade Centre.

She also claimed that on Oct 4 that year, Jamal uttered similar slanderous words against Bersih during a media conference in the Bukit Aman police headquarters compound.

She said the media and news portals later published the statements.

In her statement of claim filed on Oct 7, Maria said she had been brought into public scandal and that her reputation and good name had been tarnished.

She is seeking general and aggravated damages, as well as an injunction to stop Jamal from uttering or publishing similar words, either verbally, in print or online.

Former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will take the witness stand on Friday.

Dr M seeks to set aside Jamal’s subpoena over Bersih defamation suit

Jamal fails in bid to call IGP as witness in defamation suit

Jamal summons Mahathir to testify in Maria’s defamation suit