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Mahathir’s lawyer, Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi, said the trial dates were finalised during case management before Gan today.
The lawyer said Mahathir’s suit over Zahid’s allegedly derogatory use of the name “Kutty” to refer to him would be heard for four days from Feb 13.
In his statement of claim, Mahathir alleged that Zahid defamed him during an Umno divisional meeting in Kelana Jaya on July 30, 2017.
He claims the statement was meant to imply that he was not born a Malay or a Muslim, and that his original name was Mahathir son of Iskandar Kutty.
In his defence, Zahid said the name Mahathir son of Iskandar Kutty referred to an individual based on information from an old copy of an identity card.
Separately, Zahid’s suit against Mahathir will be heard over four days from Oct 14.
Zahid had filed the suit after Mahathir claimed the Umno president had sought his assistance to have corruption charges he was facing “dropped”.
The trial for this case had been scheduled for last November, but the hearing dates were vacated as no judge had been assigned to replace Justice Rozana Ali Yusoff, who was transferred to Penang in August.
At a press conference held on Feb 23, 2022, Mahathir claimed Zahid and several others had met him at his home immediately after the 14th general election in 2018.
He allegedly said Zahid wanted to be “friendly” with him before Mahathir became the prime minister for a second time in May 2018.
Zahid claimed Mahathir’s remarks were untrue, unwarranted, unsubstantiated and mischievous.
Mahathir, in his defence, stood by his remarks and said he was relying on the defence of justification.
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