‘Black hole’ case: High Court sets April 5 for applications by parties

KUCHING: The High Court here yesterday fixed April 5 to decide on whether to allow applications submitted by both litigating parties in the ‘black hole’ case.

The Sarawak government and State Financial Authority (SFA) applied to strike out reports by Global Witness and ‘The Rocket’ from their claims, stating that these would be ‘hearsay, irrelevant, and tantamount to matters not raised in the defence against the plaintiffs’ defamation suit’.

Defendant Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen, meanwhile, applied to the court to amend some statements in his defence.

Additionally, Chong said after the court proceeding, he would call Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak director Datu Zuraimi Sabki to testify and produce documents relating to contracts awarded to several companies within the period from 2000 to 2014.

When met after the court proceedings, State Legal Counsel Dato Sri JC Fong said he needed to strike out the reports of the two publications, apart from putting the course of trial hearing back into proper perspective.

Judicial Commissioner Alexander Siew is presiding over the ongoing trial.

Apart from Fong, the plaintiffs are represented by state legal officers Mohamad Adzrul Adzlan, Oliver Chua, and Voon Yan Sin.

Chong, the Stampin MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, is representing himself as defence counsel, assisted by lawyers Michael Kong, Sim Kiat Leng, and Chong Siew Chiang.

Chong is being sued for defamation for using the term ‘black hole’ in January 2013 to insinuate that RM11 billion had gone missing from the state’s coffers.

His allegation was published in Sin Chew Daily News, Malaysiakini, in leaflets distributed by himself and the DAP, and also in ‘The Rocket’.

As a result, in April 2013, the Sarawak government and SFA filed a defamation suit against him.

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