Justice Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamad granted Rafizi’s application during case management held today.

In his statement of claim, Tuan Ibrahim said that upon the dissolution of Parliament in October last year, he had, as the environment minister, issued “directives” to postpone all the ministry’s off-budget acquisition processes, including those involving the construction of a flood barrier at Sungai Langat.

In its order today, the court instructed Tuan Ibrahim to furnish Rafizi with details of the “directives” issued, including whether they were in written or oral form, the dates of their issue, and to whom they were addressed.

Nik Hasmat also fixed the suit for further case management on July 27.

Rafizi was represented by lawyers Azhar Arman Ali and Aina Syazwani Mansor while Yusfarizal Yusoff appeared for Tuan Ibrahim.

Tuan Ibrahim filed the suit last month claiming that Rafizi had defamed him by suggesting that he had approved the award of a RM2 billion flood mitigation project to an Umno-linked company after the dissolution of Parliament.

Rafizi had claimed that the Sungai Langat barrier project was the second contract awarded to the same company in the past six months.

Tuan Ibrahim denied the allegation and challenged Rafizi to lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). He said a caretaker government cannot approve any financial allocation as it went against a Treasury circular.