In doing so, the six will join nine other committee members as defendants, who are being sued for RM122,000 to repair police vehicles damaged during the Bersih 3.0 rally and other cost deemed fit by the court.
The six are Yeo Yang Poh, Hishamuddin Md Rais, Ahmad Syukri Che Razab, Subramaniam Pillay and Liau Kok Fah.The nine original defendants are Ambiga, Maria Chin Abdullah, Zaid Kamarudin, K Arumugam, S Arul Prakkash, Wong Chin Huat, Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa, Toh Kin Woon and Andrew Khoo.
However, Kuala Lumpur High Court agreed to a condition set by senior federal counsel Azizan Md Arshad that the six will have to bear their own legal cost, should the court rule in favour of the defendants.
Azizan had argued that this was because the six were not among the defendants named in the originating summons.
Sheila Lingam, representing A Samad, Subramaniam and Liau, objected on grounds that her clients are part of the committee and should not be left out in terms of cost.
Judge not convinced
Justice John Louis O' Hara however shot down the objections.
"If I were the member of steering committee and I had not been sued, I would be jumping for joy," said the judge.
The judge fixed Oct 30 for mention to allow time for the statement of claim to be amended and the preparation of a possible countersuit.
Speaking to reporters later, Azizan said the attorney-general’s chambers changed its mind and withdrew their objections to be fair and not waste the court’s time.
Meanwhile, the court also allowed Haris Fathillah Mohamed Ibrahim’s application to strike out the suit against him on grounds that he had ceased to be a committee member at the material time.
Other than monetary compensation, the federal government is also seeking a declaration that the defendants, as the organisers of the Bersih 3.0 rally, had violated Section 6 (2)(g) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment