Anti-Lynas group ‘Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas’ (SMSL) is applying to transfer the defamation suit filed by Lynas Corporation Limited and Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd, to the Kuantan High Court.

SMSL’s counsel Bastian Pius Vendargon told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today that they had filed the needed application to transfer the case early this month.

“The court has set Sept 26 to hear the application,” he said after meeting justice John Louis O’Hara in chambers when the case came up for case management today.

On April 19, Lynas Corporation of Sydney, Australia, and Lynas Malaysia filed the suit against SMSL Sdn Bhd and its two directors, Tan Bun Teet and Lim Sow Teow, and three volunteers, Hang Chong Leung, Lee Chow Fong and Ismail Abu Bakar, over an alleged defamatory article published on its blogsite on March 22.

Lynas had sought for an injunction application for the defendants to remove the article titled ‘Civil Society Organisations Joint Statement on Lynas Issue: SMSL Malaysian NGO statement Against Lynas’ from its blogsite until the disposal of the suit.

On July 26, Justice O'Hara dismissed Lynas’ injunction application and held that, at this stage, the court could not conclude whether the statement was defamatory or otherwise, until it heard the evidence in a full trial.

- Bernama