Kuala lumpur: The High Court dismissed Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad's application to recuse Judicial Commissioner (JC) Arziah Mohamed Apandi from presiding over his defamation suit against former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, which involves a Facebook post alleging cronyism.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, JC Arziah stated that the plaintiff had not demonstrated any real danger of bias arising from her prior case management directions or due to her being the daughter of former Attorney General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali. She clarified that any relationship was between her father and Najib, not herself and any party involved. Arziah mentioned there was no evidence of a continuing relationship between her father and Najib beyond a brief court appearance in 2019 and that her father had not held office at the Attorney General's Chambers since 2018.
Arziah further concluded that the court found no evidence of actual bias or circumstances that would lead a reasonable observer to conclude bias exists. As a result, the application was dismissed.
Dzulkefly had filed the application to recuse Arziah on April 14, citing alleged bias from remarks made by the JC during case management proceedings on March 7 and April 7. He argued that these remarks, which considered the possibility of striking out the matter, indicated actual bias or at least a perception of bias. Additionally, he pointed to Arziah's relationship with her father, who was appointed Attorney-General by Najib in 2016, as grounds for bias.
The defamation suit, filed by Dzulkefly in January 2022, alleges that Najib published a defamatory Facebook post on August 24, 2020, concerning allegations of cronyism. The post included a screenshot of a Sinar Harian article from January 28, 2019, featuring Dzulkefly's photograph. Dzulkefly claimed that the statement implied he engaged in cronyism by awarding positions to relatives without assessing their qualifications and was made to attack his character for political reasons.
In his defence, Najib argued that the Facebook post, which discussed cronyism, did not specifically refer to Dzulkefly but was aimed at the Pakatan Harapan coalition.