The Kuala Lumpur High Court relied on technical grounds to dismiss a defamation suit by V Mabel Muthayyah, a former secretariat head in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, against Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown.
Judicial commissioner Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan this afternoon denied the civil action by the retired Sessions Court judge over three articles, one of them being a 2015 Sarawak Report article “How AG’s Office connived to prevent a second postmortem on Kevin Morais - Exclusive exposé”.
The civil court said in allowing the defendant’s last-minute technical objections to the suit, the judicial commissioner said the plaintiff failed to translate two of the three articles in question into Bahasa Melayu, as part of the requirements for the suit’s amended statement of claim.
However, Mohzanuddin said if it were not for this technical objection, the civil court would have instead ruled in favour of Mabel against Rewcastle-Brown, and ordered the whistleblower to pay RM1 million in damages.
The civil court said the hypothetical defamatory liable ruling against Rewcastle-Brown was over the article “How AG’s Office connived to prevent a second postmortem on Kevin Morais - Exclusive exposé”.
This article is separate from the two articles that failed to abide by legal procedure to be translated into Bahasa Melayu for the cause papers.
The judicial commissioner said if it were not for the procedural objection, the civil court would have found that Rewcastle-Brown defamed Mabel over the article “How AG’s Office connived to prevent a second postmortem on Kevin Morais - Exclusive exposé”.
Mohzanuddin ruled that the whistleblower failed to do sufficient verification before publishing the article with the serious allegation against the plaintiff.
The judicial commissioner reiterated that the entire suit must still fail due to procedural non-compliance with written law on drafting pleadings for defamation suits.
Mohzanuddin then ordered Mabel to pay RM15,000 in costs to Rewcastle-Brown. Both plaintiff and defendant were not physically present in court this afternoon.
Vindication despite loss
When met after the open-court proceedings, Mabel’s counsel David Gurupatham said they would appeal to the Court of Appeal over the suit’s dismissal on technical grounds.
The lawyer added that despite losing the suit on procedural grounds, Mabel was still vindicated by the civil court’s ruling today.
In July 2019, Malaysiakini reported that Mabel filed the defamation suit against Rewcastle-Brown (above) over the whistleblower portal’s article.
In her statement of defence, Rewcastle-Brown relied on justification and qualified privilege to counter the civil action.
Morais’ remains were found in a steel drum after he was kidnapped from his car on the way to work in September 2015.
In July 2020, the Kuala Lumpur High Court convicted a former army doctor and five accomplices over his murder and sentenced them to death.
The Court of Appeal upheld their conviction and capital punishment in March this year.
Counsel Guok Ngek Seong acted for Rewcastle-Brown in today’s civil court proceedings. - Mkini
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