Jamal’s lawyer, Mohammed Nasser Yusof, said his client’s application would be heard on Nov 4 before judge Rozana Ali Yusoff.

“Yesterday, we received an email from deputy registrar Nor Afidah Idris on the notification of the new date,” he told reporters.

“The hearing on the application before judge Rozana should have been today, but it was postponed due to the imposition of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) in Selangor, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur until Oct 27.”

The application was filed on Sept 16 pending Jamal’s appeal at the Court of Appeal to strike out the suit.

Jamal, the Sungai Besar Umno chief, filed the appeal following a decision by the High Court on Aug 7 to dismiss his application to strike out the suit.

Naseer said the case management of his client’s appeal in the Court of Appeal had been fixed for Oct 22 through e-Review.

Yeo filed the suit against Jamal on June 14, 2017, seeking RM5 million in compensation for his alleged defamatory statement over the abuse of Yawas funds.

In the statement of claim, Yeo, who is also the Bakri MP, said Jamal issued the statement on March 21, 2017, which was published by several newspapers, news portals and on Jamal’s Facebook account.

Yeo claims that Jamal’s statement, among others, gave the impression she had abused public funds for personal use and painted her as an unethical and unreliable person.

Apart from RM5 million in general damages, Yeo sought compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages and an injunction to prevent Jamal from repeating the allegations.