Guan Eng mulls execution proceedings against RPK over RM600,000 damages

 

Lim Guan Eng (left) was awarded RM600,000 in a default judgment in his defamation suit against blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.

PETALING JAYA: Former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng will initiate execution proceedings to enforce a High Court judgment for blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin to pay him RM600,000 in damages for defamation in relation to the state’s undersea tunnel project.

Lim’s lawyer, K Simon Murali, said he needed to get further instructions from his client on the proceedings.

“We are unable to meet now due to the lockdown. We have a few options on the execution proceedings to enforce the judgment,” he said.

Murali was responding to a video posted on Raja Petra’s blog recently that he had scored a moral victory in the suit as judge Mohd Arief Emran Arifin only awarded RM600,000 to Lim when he had asked for RM100 million.

“Lim lost because I managed to establish that his reputation is worth RM600,000,” he said in the posting.

He said many people, including prominent personalities, had sued him over the last 20 years but he did not entertain their actions.

The blogger, believed to be living in the UK, said he did not defame Lim but only published a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigation report on the project.

“It is genuine. My crime is publishing a document that is classified. It has nothing to do with Lim,” he said.

On May 25, Arief ordered Raja Petra to pay Lim damages of RM600,000, including 5% interest, calculated from the day the writ was filed on Sept 6, 2019 until the amount was settled.

Lim, who is also the DAP secretary-general, had obtained a default judgment against Raja Petra last year after the blogger failed to enter his appearance in court.

Lim’s legal team also applied to the court for substitute service in which notices of the suit were published in three newspapers. Raja Petra failed to respond to these by Feb 10, 2020, leading to Lim filing for a judgment in default.

Lim, who personally appeared in court, asked Arief that Raja Petra pay him at least RM10 million for each of the 10 articles published.

He filed the suit for damages, a front page apology and an injunction to prevent Raja Petra from repeating his allegations, contained in a series of articles under the heading “From the MACC Files” published on Feb 24 and March 15 the same year.

In his statement of claim, Lim sought exemplary damages on the grounds that Raja Petra “must have obtained profit from the huge volume of readership on all the articles” and such profits might exceed the amount of damages that could be awarded to him.

Lim’s lawyers had attempted to serve the writ and statement of claim to Raja Petra by personal service at his last known address in Sungai Buloh, but the attempts were futile. - FMT