KJ’s last chance to appeal 'main belakang' remark set for September

The Federal Court has fixed Sep 12 to hear Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar’s final appeal against having to pay RM150,000 in damages and RM60,000 in costs to de facto PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim.

This was confirmed by Anwar’s lawyer J Leela to Malaysiakini after case management today.

The Court of Appeal had struck out Khairy’s appeal in February, ruling that the notice of appeal filed by his lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was “ambiguous and defective.”

Last September, High Court judge Azizul Azmi Adnan ruled that Khairy had defamedAnwar with his "main belakang" (playing from behind) remark made at a Lembah Pantai ceramah in 2008, just before the 12th general election.

"I am of the view that the words uttered by the defendant (Khairy) are defamatory of the plaintiff, within the reasonable and ordinary meaning to members of the public.

“The general damages to be charged is four percent interest from Feb 19, 2008, the date of the incident,” the judge ruled.

In assessing damages, Azizul took into consideration that the allegations against Anwar were serious, made at a public event, and were widely publicised in the media.

However, the judge did not grant aggravated damages as he ruled out malice. - Mkini