Ibrahim Ali challenges contempt conviction, says he was not responsible for web post

Datuk Ibrahim Ali at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya today. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Faisal Salehhuddin, May 20, 2014.Datuk Ibrahim Ali is not guilty of contempt as a posting on the Perkasa website which attacked a judge was done by another person, the Court of Appeal heard today.

Lawyer Adnan Seman told the three-man bench chaired by Datuk Wahab Patail that the article was uploaded by Zainuddin Salleh, the registered owner of the Perkasa website since 2008.

"The website was created by Zainuddin, and Ibrahim has no knowledge of the uploading process," Adnan said in his submission to appeal against Ibrahim's conviction and sentence of one day in jail and RM20,000 fine.

The contempt proceeding was initiated by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Zainuddin's article carried personal attacks against former High Court judge Datuk V. T. Singham, who had presided over Anwar's defamation suit against Utusan Melayu, and its editor-in-chief Abdul Aziz Ishak.

The article was published on January 7 when the decision by Singham on the defamation suit was pending.

On January 21, Singham ruled in favour of Anwar in the defamation suit, which was over the publication of two articles on his comments to BBC in an interview on law regarding homosexuality.

Following the decision, Anwar moved to cite Perkasa president Ibrahim (pic) and Zainuddin for contempt for the attacks against Singham.

Ibrahim had tried to set aside the application for committal proceedings against him, arguing that he and Perkasa were not responsible for the defamatory article posted in the website, but his application was rejected.

On November 19, the Kuala Lumpur High Court found Zainuddin and Ibrahim guilty of contempt of court.

Judge Datuk John Louis O'Hara also sentenced Zainuddin to four weeks' jail. He served the sentence and did not appeal.

Adnan told the Court of Appeal today the argument against Ibrahim that he did not distance himself from the posting did not arise because he did not have any knowledge of it.

"He did not manage nor control the website," he said.

Adnan said the offence was committed solely by Perkasa and Zainuddin.

"The Societies Act does not apply that Ibrahim has to be responsible for the posting in his capacity as president," he said.

R. Sivarasa, who represented Anwar, said Ibrahim must be held responsible because of his failure to act when the article was posted on the website.

"He did not make an attempt to remove the article from the website," he added.

Sivarasa said Ibrahim also did not distance himself from the article like openly declaring that he did not agree what Zainuddin had done.

"It was only removed after Anwar had obtained leave from the court in March to initiate contempt proceedings against the two," he added.

Lawyer Steven Thiru, who appeared for the Bar Council at the invitation of the court, said the attack against Singham was also an attempt to bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

Steven said the council had taken the position that Ibrahim was guilty of contempt as he had inferred knowledge.

Senior Federal Counsel Mohammad Al-Saifi Hashim said there was insufficient evidence to link Ibrahim to the posting of the article and the appeal should be allowed.

The court adjourned the decision to a date to be fixed later.