Shafee told to appoint lawyer in inter partes injunction hearing against Raja Petra

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court Tuesday ordered lawyer Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to appoint a counsel to represent him in the inter partes injunction application hearing against blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin on Oct 8.

Justice Datuk Tee Ah Sing made the order in chambers after hearing preliminary objections from Raja Petra's counsel, Manjeet Singh Dhillon, who submitted that an advocate and solicitor shall not appear in any matter in which he is directly pecuniarily interested.

Manjeet Singh told reporters that the Legal Profession (Practice & Etiquette) Rules 1978 clearly stated that an advocate and solicitor shall not appear in court in any case which he has reason to believe he will be a witness in the hearing.

Shafee said he would appoint a counsel to represent him and added that said the ex-parte injunction he obtained against Raja Petra Raja on Aug 13 to remove three articles posted on the latter's "Malaysia Today" weblog expired today.

He had also obtained an injunction to prohibit the blogger from publishing similar articles that are defamatory to him in the weblog.

Shafee had obtained a wide range of orders including one to compel Raja Petra to reveal the source of the information in the three articles posted on Aug 6, 7 and 11.

Shafee is suing Raja Petra for defamation, claiming that the blogger had been making up stories and running a political propaganda to mislead the public over political issues.

Raja Petra was also represented by counsel J. Chandra and Amarjit Singh Sidhu.

Bernama
03/09/08