RPK - Now do you understand what I mean?

Anwar Ibrahim’s civil suit against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamd was thrown out because the papers had been filed in English with no Bahasa Malaysia translation attached. Raja Petra Kamarudin’s application to strike out lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s suit also because it had been filed in English with no Bahasa Malaysia translation, however, was rejected by the court.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

(20 October 2009) - An appeal by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim over his RM100 million defamation suit against Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been thrown out.

The Court of Appeals, after going through the written submissions by both sides ‘with a fine tooth comb’, allowed the application by V.K. Lingam, counsel for Dr Mahathir, to strike out the appeal by Anwar on ‘technical defects’.

Justice Abdul Malik Ishak, who sat with Justices Azhah Ma’ah and Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad, ruled that Anwar’s appeal was defective because it was not prepared in Bahasa Malaysia.

The former Prime Minister had submitted that Anwar’s memorandum of appeal was filed only in English and not also in Malay as required by the law.

Judge Abdullah Malik Ishak said the court also dismissed Anwar’s application for an extension of time to file the memorandum of appeal in Malay.

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RPK fails to set aside order in defamation suit

(The Star, 12 August 2010) - PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin failed to set aside an ex-parte injunction order obtained by lawyer Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah in his defamation suit against him (Raja Petra).

Court of Appeal judge Justice Sulong Matjeraie, who chaired a three-man panel, dismissed the appeal by Raja Petra against the ex-parte order with costs.

"It is not appropriate for us to deal with issues arising from the writ (defamation suit)," he said.

Also in the panel were Justices Jefrey Tan Kok Wha and Abdul Wahab Patail.

In an unanimous decision, Justice Sulong ordered Raja Petra to pay RM500 in costs to Shafee, after the editor's lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon told the court of his client's bankrupt status and that the parties should wait for the outcome over the defamation trial.

At the outset, Manjit applied to strike out the suit on grounds that the documents were not filed in the national language and breach of rules on the part of Shafee when he acted as litigant, counsel and solicitor in the civil action earlier, but the appellate judges did not touched on the issues.

Muhammad Shafee is suing Raja Petra over three allegedly defamatory articles published on Aug 6, 7 and 11, 2008, on the online portal.

On Aug 15, 2008, it was reported that a commotion had broken out in a magistrate's court here when Shafee tried to serve a court order on Raja Petra asking him to remove the three articles from the news portal.

On that day, Raja Petra, who is currently believed to be in London, flatly turned down the service of the order.

On Sept 2, 2008, Raja Petra succeeded in getting a court order restraining Shafee from acting for himself in his suit. High Court judge Justice Tee Ah Sing, however, did not allow the editor's application to strike out the suit on grounds that the documents were filed in English.

Justice Tee issued an ex-parte injunction order on Aug 13, 2008 restraining Raja Petra whether by himself, his agents or otherwise from allowing any articles, journals, letters, comments, posts and statements that are defamatory of Shafee, to be accessible over the Internet.

In a statement of defence filed on Nov 25, 2008, Raja Petra said he would adduce detailed evidence on the matter during the trial.

In applying for the suit to be dismissed with costs, Raja Petra contended that Shafee’s suit was misconceived and untenable in law and/or was an abuse of the process of court.