Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor are among nine defendants attempting to strike out a suit filed by the late P. Balasubramaniam’s family which would expose their alleged roles in sending the late private detective, his wife and kids into forced exile.
Lawyer Americk Singh, who is appearing for Balasubramaniam's widow, A. Santamil Selvi and their three children, told The Malaysian Insider the hearing has been set for November 20 before High Court judge Datuk Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.
Among the grounds cited by the defendants are that Balasubramaniam's family had no reasonable cause of action, that their action was an abuse of the court process and it is scandalous, frivolous and vexatious.
The Malaysian Insider learnt that if the prime minister and the eight others are successful in striking out the suit, then the merits of the case will never be known to the public.
This would include why Balasubramaniam was forced to retract his first sworn statement and why he and his family were forced to leave the country and settle down in India.
Santamil and her children are suing for losses suffered during their exile between July 2008 and early last year following Balasubramaniam's retraction of his first statutory declaration (SD).
Balasubramaniam died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India.
In the suit, the family said the defendants caused Balasubramaniam's second SD "to be drafted without the instructions of the deceased and further caused the deceased to sign the same under threat and inducement".
He came into the limelight after he worked for prominent political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda in the Altantuya case and when he retracted his first sworn statement about the matter on July 4, 2008.
Balasubramaniam in the second SD had said that he wished "to retract the entire contents of my first statutory declaration dated July 1, 2008. I was compelled to affirm the said first statutory declaration under duress".
The second SD also read that all statements made were inaccurate and not the truth.
Balasubramaniam then remained tight-lipped during a news conference at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur where his new lawyer Arunapalam was present to take questions from the media.
They left after distributing copies of the second SD.
Arunapalam said his client was under duress and that he was upset.
On July 3, 2008, Balasubramaniam had told a packed press conference organised by PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that the contents of the first SD which implicated Najib and several others in Altantuya's murder in 2006 were true.
- TMI
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