This is following judge Rozana Ali Yusof’s dismissal of Jamal’s application to stay the court proceeding pending his appeal against the court’s dismissal of his application to strike out the defamation suit.

Yeo’s counsel, Sankara N Nair said judge Rozana who delivered the decision in chambers today also ordered Jamal to pay RM1,000 in costs to his client.

“Following the dismissal of the stay application today, the case will therefore proceed for full trial in the High Court on March 2 and 4 and April 12 to 13,” he said in a statement.

Jamal was represented by lawyers, V Mugunthan and Mohammad Nasser Yusof.

On Aug 7 last year, judge Rozana dismissed Jamal’s application to strike out the suit and ordered him to pay RM2,000 in costs.

Jamal filed the application to strike out the suit in June last year, on grounds that it was premature as the investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was still going on.

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

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

Yeo claimed that Jamal’s statement, among others, gave the impression that 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 is also seeking compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages and an injunction to prevent Jamal from repeating the allegations.