The defamation suit by National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFC) against Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli and Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd will go to trial at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.

This comes as the parties failed to reach an agreement during a mediation held today.

Following this, the matter has been fixed for case management before judge John Louis O’Hara, during which the trial dates may also be fixed.

Justice O’Hara will also hear the submissions tomorrow on NFC’s suit against Public Bank Bhd over the disclosure of its accounts.

The submissions are on NFC’s Order 14 application, at which the parties will argue on points of law and not go through a trial to determine the outcome of the suit.

NFC lawyer Y Seelan informed reporters of this latest development today.

Seelan said only lawyers appearing for the parties are being called in the suit and not the respective parties.

“There is no way that the matter can go through mediation. Mediation has failed,” said the lawyer.

NFC chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail, Rafizi (left) and Mkini’s chief executive officer Premesh Chandran were present during the mediation process.

It was reported that NFC had filed a suit against Rafizi and Mkini, the operator of news portal Malaysiakini.

NFC is suing Rafizi over a blog posting made in 2012, titled ‘NFC Scandal: Evidence of how public funds for the feedlot project was used as ‘guarantee’ for personal loan to purchase eight luxury properties at KL Eco City, Bangsar’.

The company is suing Mkini TV over a video posting of Rafizi’s press conference titled ‘More properties in Bangsar bought by NFC directors’.

It was reported that Mohamad Salleh’s wife and former minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has dropped her RM100 million suit against Rafizi and Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin over the NFC fiasco last year, midway while Shahrizat was being cross-examined.