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Thursday, 24 February 2011

Najib and five others apply to strike out suit by ISA detainees

The Star 
by M. MAGESWARI

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and five others are applying to strike out a RM200mil unlawful arrest and detention suit filed by two former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees, M. Manoharan and P. Uthayakumar

High Court Judicial Com­missioner Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal will hear the application on March 24 because another judge has recused himself.

Justice Harmindar set the date yesterday after meeting Mano­haran, who represented himself, and senior federal counsel Diar Isda Yazmin Ismail in chambers.

“High Court Judicial Com­missioner Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham recused himself from hearing the matter as he was Najib’s classmate,” Manoharan told reporters later.

In their application, the six defendants said the civil action filed by Manoharan and Uthaya­kumar on Dec 9 last year was an abuse of the court process.

They are asking the court to strike out the suit under the Rules of the High Court 1980.

Alternatively, Najib and five others are asking the court to use its inherent jurisdiction to strike out the suit with costs.

In the application filed on Feb 16, the defendants also stated that the suit was frivolous and vexatious.

They said the two plaintiffs’ action was directly related to a case which has been applied and disposed of by the High Court and Federal Court.

Among others, they said the filing of the civil action was actually prohibited by Section 8B(1) of the ISA Act 1960 which stated that there shall be no judicial review in any courts except on procedural requirements under the same Act.

In an affidavit to support the application, the two plaintiffs are applying to court for RM100mil each in damages and that an annual interest of 8% be awarded on grounds that they had been wrongfully detained for 514 days from Dec 13, 2007 to May 9, 2009.

In their suit, the plaintiffs named Najib, former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan, the Taiping detention centre superintendent and the Government as defendants.

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