Lim’s lawyer, Simon Murali, said the hearing would be before judge Rohani Ismail.

“The new hearing date was set today during a proceeding via e-review by deputy registrar Dalwinder Singh. Lim will testify as a witness on that day,” he said when contacted.

On Feb 28 this year, Lim, who is also former Penang chief minister, obtained a judgment in default against Raja Petra as the blogger did not contest the suit.

Lim filed the suit on Sept 6, 2019 over a series of “From the MACC Files” articles, in both English and Bahasa Malaysia versions, carried on Raja Petra’s online news portal, “Malaysia Today”, between Feb 24 and March 15, 2019.

The articles were regarding the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation into the issue of alleged corruption in the infrastructure project.

Lim had sought exemplary damages on grounds that Raja Petra had profited from the huge volume of readership on all the articles.

He had also, among others, sought a front-page apology and an injunction to prevent the blogger from repeating his allegations.

The DAP secretary-general filed an application for a judgment in default after Raja Petra failed to respond to the notice of the suit that Lim placed in three newspapers this year.

Lim had also attempted to serve the writ and statement of claim on Raja Petra by personal service at the blogger’s last known address which was obtained from the National Registration Department and the Election Commission but was unsuccessful.