KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here today ordered a lawyer-turned-politician to pay RM300,000 in damages to Chief Minister Shafie Apdal for malicious prosecution.
Judicial Commissioner Celestina Stuel Galid also ordered Mohd Ainal Fatah, who led the Umno campaign in Semporna against Shafie during the 14th general election, to pay RM20,000 in costs to the Warisan president.
Shafie had previously filed a lawsuit against Ainal on April 24 for maliciously using the judicial process to allege corrupt practices through news publications before the May 9 polls.
Shafie had won a default judgement against Ainal who had failed to file his defence on July 26.Counsel Douglas Lind represented Shafie in court while Nurul Rafeeqa Abdul Mutolip appeared for Ainal, who was not present in court at the hearing today.
Shafie had asked the court for RM1.3 million in general, exemplary and aggravated damages.
Ainal had previously publicised in the media his application for judicial review to bar Shafie from contesting or voting in the recent general election.
Shafie, in his court papers, said Ainal had released the full details of his judicial review application, in particular alleged corrupt practices, in leading newspapers in Sabah in order to cause maximum damage to his reputation.
The Semporna MP also charged that Ainal had released the details for publication despite having not filed an affidavit to verify the facts.
Furthermore, Shafie also said that Ainal had acted to deliberately harm, hurt and damage him ahead of the elections as Ainal could not prove any of his claims in his judicial review application to stop the Warisan president from contesting in the polls. -FMT
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