High Court upholds default judgment in Saifuddin's defamation suit

 

The Alor Setar High Court has dismissed a social media user’s application to set aside a default judgment in a defamation suit filed by Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail over posts related to Kedah politics and Kedah Darul Aman FC (KDA FC).

In his ruling made available to the media today, Judge John Lee Kien How @ Mohammad Johan Lee dismissed Zubair Ismail’s application after finding that the respondent had failed to establish a credible defence to warrant the case proceeding to trial.

“As the respondent failed to present a credible defence after disregarding the substituted service mechanism, the court dismisses the application and orders the respondent to pay costs of RM8,000 to the plaintiff (Saifuddin),” he said.

In the decision delivered on June 30, the judge said Zubair had failed to attach a draft statement of defence to his application, and therefore did not clearly demonstrate the basis of the defence he intended to raise if the default judgment was set aside.

The court also found contradictions in the respondent’s affidavit, noting that while he claimed the published statements were true, Zubair also said he could not recall or verify the contents of the social media posts because his electronic devices had been seized by the MCMC and his social media accounts had been blocked.

The judge said the court was of the view that a person could not claim a statement was true while simultaneously asserting that he did not know its actual contents.

Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail

“The respondent argued that he had never expressly mentioned the official name ‘Saifuddin Nasution’, but the court found that the defamatory Facebook poster clearly displayed the plaintiff’s face, while the nicknames ‘Pudin’ and ‘Pudin Pokka’ were used in several videos linked to the context of Kedah politics.

“The court is of the view that the visual identification and the use of nicknames commonly understood by the public were sufficient to identify the plaintiff for the purposes of a defamation action,” the judge said.

Allegations of misconduct

The suit arose from several alleged defamatory Facebook and TikTok posts uploaded in March 2025, which accused Saifuddin of misconduct involving Kedah politics and KDA FC.

The plaintiff’s lawyers attempted to personally serve the statement of claim to the respondent twice, on May 15 and June 25, 2025, but both attempts were unsuccessful.

The plaintiff subsequently obtained the court’s permission to effect substituted service by publishing a notice in a newspaper and posting it on the High Court’s notice board.

As the respondent still failed to respond or appear in court, a default judgment for failure to enter appearance was entered against him on Dec 8, 2025.

On March 19, 2026, the respondent claimed he only became aware of the judgment through a newspaper report and, in April 2026, applied to set aside the default judgment, arguing that he had never received the court documents and that his social media posts were true or constituted fair comment.

Meanwhile, Saifuddin’s lawyer SN Nair, when contacted by Bernama today, said the ruling meant the default judgment entered against the respondent on Dec 8 remained valid, effective and binding on both parties.

“The case will now proceed to the assessment of damages, where the court will determine the amount of damages to be awarded to the plaintiff pursuant to the default judgment,” he said.

- Bernama