Felix Lim, one of the lawyers representing Lim, confirmed the new hearing date following case management before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Syahliza Warnoh this afternoon.

The appeal hearing was initially fixed for today before the Court of Appeal’s three-member panel, comprising justices Lee Swee Seng, P Ravinthran and Hashim Hamzah, but was postponed.

Lee told both parties that the panel had not taken any break since proceedings started in the morning.

“We have to apologise to all of you. We haven’t taken any break and it is close to 2pm. Looking at your estimated time for submission, each of you would need an hour and more time for the replies,” he said.

“We think under these circumstances, we will have to send it for case management to reschedule a fresh hearing date,” said Lee.

Azeez is appealing against the Penang High Court’s decision on Nov 12, 2020, which dismissed his defamation suit against the former Penang chief minister in connection with the construction of the Penang undersea tunnel project.

Azeez filed the suit in March 2018 claiming that Lim, who was the then finance minister, had issued defamatory statements during a press conference at the Penang chief minister’s office on Feb 28, 2018, and at a Chinese New Year open house hosted by the Penang Development Corporation on the same day, linking Azeez to a payment of RM3 million as consultation fees from the developer of the undersea tunnel project.

He is seeking, among others, general and exemplary damages and other relief deemed fit by the court.

In today’s proceedings conducted online, lawyers Porres Royan and Craig Ho represented Azeez while Lim was represented by N Mureli.