The former prime minister added that he had no intention of defaming Dzulkefly in the posting made on Aug 14, 2020.
“The defendant (Najib ) states the impugned post only referred to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition,” said the defence statement filed by Messrs Shafee & Co two days ago.
The statement said Najib had made the post to highlight the “hypocrisy” of the PH coalition in alleging nepotism and cronyism in political appointments against the defendant’s political coalition.
It was in reference to appointments to various government-linked companies (GLCs) despite the fact that while PH was in government (from May 2018 to February 2020) it had made appointments of a similar nature, added the statement.
The statement said the Pekan MPs Facebook post was accompanied by a Sinar Harian screenshot and that this was to allow the public to fairly assess the issue, including providing an avenue for Dzulkefly to take a stand.
“The defendant further pleads that he had no control over the headline published by Sinar Harian and that this writ of action is made in bad faith (mala fide) as the defendant has been selectively sued for political mileage and the plaintiff’s waning popularity” the statement added.
It said Dzulkefly was selective as no action had been taken against Sinar Harian on the article itself but only against Najib.
Najib also raised the defence of justification, qualified privilege and fair comment should the court find him liable for defamation.
Dzulkefly filed the suit on Dec 31 last year over Najib’s Facebook post alleging that he (Dzulkefly) practised nepotism as his daughter, Nurul Iman, had been appointed a board member of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia in 2019.
The Kuala Selangor MP, who had denied the nepotism allegation, said Najib’s post was still on his Facebook page as at November 2021.
He claimed that Nurul Iman’s appointment was made before he became the health minister in the PH government and that she had been reappointed to the position in the microcredit organisation early last year.
“Najib, with malice, made the allegations without verification, resulting in his posting shared 970 times by his followers.
“The Facebook post was edited six times and this shows that he planned its publication to defame me,” he said.
Dzulkefly’s lawyer, SN Nair, said a case management would be held before judicial commissioner Arief Emran Arifin on April 14.