The Court of Appeal has unanimously allowed an appeal by PAS’ Shah Alam parliamentarian Khalid Samad against the Shah Alam High Court’s dismissal of his suit against former Perak exco member Hamidah Osman.
Hamidah (right) had placed a superimposed photo of Khalid on her blog-post, showing him apparently wearing a priest’s robe.“The court finds the article and picture to be defamatory. The High Court’s judgmentwas wrong and is set aside,” said Justice Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, who headed the three-member bench.
He ordered Hamidah to pay RM50,000 in costs and directed the court's senior assistant registrar to assess damages.
The other judges were Justices Mah Weng Kwai and Aband Iskandar Abang Hashim.
On July 12, Shah Alam High Court judicial commissioner Hashim Hamzah had dismissed Khalid's suit on the ground that he had failed to show the original blog-post and ordered him to pay RM20,000 in costs.
However, the full grounds of judgment were not given at the time.
Khalid had filed the suit in January 2010, claiming that the superimposed photograph portrayed him as a Christian priest and an apostate.
He claimed an unspecified amount of damages, relief and other costs as deemed fit by the court.
Lawyers Mohd Hanipa Maidin and Azhana Mohd Khairuddin represented Khalid, while Wan Azmir Wan Majid appeared for Hamidah.
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