KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's High Court on Friday announced that November 14 would be the first hearing in a RM100 million defamation lawsuit pushed by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim against Umno Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin. Ibrahim's lawyer J. Leela said that the PKR leader and a reporter would be called to give evidence in the trial. “The judge has ordered the parties to file summary of the case, list of witnesses and issues to be tried,” Leela told reporters after meeting the judge in chambers. It marks the continued controversy surrounding Ibrahim, who has lashed out against the government over corruption of subsidies. He has also faced attacks from the government over a decade-old corruption case against him as well. Over the past week, at least two key figures in the 13-year-old saga have offered to help the MACC should investigation into the case be reopened. Former Bank Negara assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid, whose statutory declaration (SD) on Anwar's alleged control of 20 master accounts worth RM3 billion — dated Oct 26, 1999, and which ultimately prompted the then ACA to launch probes — in a statement earlier this week, stood by his SD and expressed his willingness to come forward again to assist in investigations. Ibrahim is no stranger to allegations and court cases against him. He has been acquitted of same-sex relations by a Malaysia court recently, on charges his supporters argue are trumped up and being publicized as a new election will be held later this year or early next. “These are ridiculous claims aimed at hurting his popularity ahead of the next elections," activist and Ibrahim supporter, Yussif Gandiri told Bikyamasr.com. On Wednesday, Ibrahim argued while debating the supplementary supply bill that the total amount of money was nearly 40 percent more than the original allocation in the 2012 budget, specifically pointing to the increase in sugar and toll subsidies as “ensuring the profitability of crony companies." “I am certain in this case, the profit to the crony companies is excessive," the opposition leader said of the RM343 million added to the initial RM446 million to subsidise tolls. He also said that as Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary's Tradewinds is one of two companies that control the local sugar market, the RM367 million added to the RM198 million allocated under the budget was not proportional to the actual increase in sugar prices. “We want to know who actually benefits from these subsidies. They say it's for the public. Show us what are the profits of these companies," the Permatang Pauh MP said. The opposition has previously questioned if the government is handing over the RM198 million allocated for sugar subsidies under the fiscal budget to politically-connected companies after nearly tripling sugar subsidies despite a dive in global prices over the second half of 2011.
