NFC withdraws appeal against M'kini

A three-member Court of Appeal panel has today recorded the withdrawal of the appeal of National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd and its chairperson Mohd Salleh Ismail with regards to its defamation suit against news portal Malaysiakini.

This was disclosed by NFC senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to the bench led by Justice Umi Kalthum Abd Majid.

Salleh and NFC had sued PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli and Malaysiakini, over Rafizi's statement on March 7, 2012, alleging that public funds meant for NFC’s project in Gemas had been used as leverage to purchase eight properties at KL Eco World.

In October 2016, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur had found Rafizi guilty of defaming NFC and Salleh, but dismissed the case against Malaysiakini, with the judge ruling that the news portal was covered by the defence of reportage.

Rafizi had thus been ordered by the High Court to pay a total of RM300,000 with RM200,000 in damages and RM100,00 costs to Salleh and NFC respectively. In addition, the court had granted an injunction barring Rafizi and the portal from repeating the statement.

While NFC and Salleh's appeal against Malaysiakini was dismissed today, their appeal against Rafizi as well as Rafizi's cross-appeal on the decision of having defamed the two will be heard on another date.

This follows case management at the appellate court, which will be held on July 12. 

The court fixed another date for Shafee to streamline his submissions and also for parties to clarify the 2016 Kuala Lumpur High Court order with the appellate court.

Justice Umi Kalthum reminded the lawyers for both NFC and Rafizi that this case dated back two years, and that the court wanted both parties to fix an early hearing date.

Rafizi was represented by lawyers Ranjit Singh and Razlan Hadri Zulkifli, while lawyer K Shanmuga appeared for Malaysiakini. -Mkini