The Court of Appeal in Putrajaya today granted Anwar Ibrahim’s application to strike out the majority judgment on his sodomy case in 1998 that Senator S Nallakaruppan and two others used in their defence statements in the RM100 million suit Anwar filed against them.
Leading the three-judge panel, Justice Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim said they unanimously allowed this appeal and set aside the decision of the High Court.
The other two judges were Justice David Wong Dak Wah and Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim.
The court also dismissed the cross-appeal filed by the three defendants and ordered them to pay RM15,000 as costs to Anwar.
On Dec 26, 2012, High Court Judicial Commissioner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera allowed Nallakaruppan, Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd and its editor-in-chief Abdul Aziz Ishak to retain most of their statements of defence in case.
The only part that the judicial commissioner struck out was the plea of justification.
Lawyer Muhammad Asmirul Asraf Fadli, who represented Utusan, told reporters that the decision was based on Section 43 of the Evidence Act, which prohibits the evidence of previous convictions to be used in civil case.
On March 26, 2012, Anwar filed a suit against the three defendants over Nallakaruppan’s statements in a front-page article of Utusan Malaysia on March 20, titled ‘Anwar biseksual, tak boleh jadi Ketua Pembangkang – Nalla’ (Anwar is bisexual, can’t be Opposition Leader – Nalla).
Anwar’s statement of claim said the words in the article were false, baseless and published with malicious intent.
He is seeking RM100 million in general, aggravated and exemplary damages, costs and other relief deemed fit by the court.
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