Najib’s lawyer, Nor Hazira Abu Haiyan said Justice Hue Siew Kheng ruled in chambers that widow A Santamil Selvi’s current lawsuit is not an unsustainable one.
“The issues should be decided in a full trial.”
Previously, lawyers for Najib, Rosmah and six others argued that Santamil’s suit should be annulled as she was out of time to file the action.
It was also understood that Justice Hue also ruled the principle of “res judicata”, or a higher court’s decision is bound by a lower court, does not apply to this current striking out.
“Her previous lawsuit was never heard, and the cause of action from this current suit is different from the last one.”
The court set another case management on March 16.
Santamil previously filed a conspiracy suit against Najib, Rosmah, Najib’s brothers Mohd Nazim and Johari, lawyers Sunil Abraham, Cecil Abraham, Arulampalam Mariampillai, commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat and businessman Deepak Jaikishan.
She claimed there was evidence to implicate all the nine defendants in perpetrating the alleged wrong against them.
However, her lawsuit was struck out by the Court of Appeal in 2015.
Last year, Santamil and her two children filed another suit against the same individuals she named in her previous suit, alleging they suffered intentional harm as a result of their exile in India.
She said the nine people had deprived her family of a normal life, and caused them to suffer financial and non-financial losses.
They claim to have suffered trauma and mental anguish caused by the nine, and to have been deprived of a home in familiar surroundings.
They are seeking damages, with interest, for losses suffered from July 2008 as a result of their five-year displacement.
However, the case against Deepak was not heard today, as the businessman filed a separate application to strike out Santamil’s suit.
Balasubramaniam was previously embroiled in a controversy over his two conflicting statutory declarations (SD) in the high-profile 2006 murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.
In the current suit, the family said the nine individuals had caused Balasubramaniam’s second SD to be drafted without his instruction and further caused him to sign it under threat and inducement.
The family said he was forced to leave Malaysia for India in a hurry after signing the second SD in July 2008, a day after the first was released.
On July 3, 2008, Balasubramaniam told a packed press conference, organised by PKR, that the contents of the first SD, which implicated Najib and several others in the murder of Altantuya, were true.
The second SD dated July 4, 2008, is supposed to have cleared Najib of any involvement in the case. In the second SD, Balasubramaniam said he wished to retract the entire contents of his first SD dated July 3, as it had been made under duress.
Balasubramaniam, a key witness in the Altantuya trial, died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India.
He had worked for political analyst and Najib associate Abdul Razak Baginda, who had hired him to monitor Altantuya before her disappearance.
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