Final bid by KJ to set aside award to Anwar over ‘main belakang’ remark

 

On Feb 7, the Court of Appeal affirmed a 2017 High Court ruling ordering Khairy Jamaluddin to pay RM150,000 in damages to Anwar Ibrahim.

PUTRAJAYA: Khairy Jamaluddin has gone to the Federal Court in his final bid to set aside the findings of liability in a defamation suit filed by Anwar Ibrahim over a “main belakang” remark which he allegedly made 14 years ago.

Khairy, who is now health minister, has filed seven legal questions for the apex court to give him leave to have the merit of the appeal heard.

Applicants must satisfy the court by framing novel legal questions that are of public importance and raised for the first time as required under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act.

Counsel J Leela, a member in Anwar’s legal team, said Khairy’s lawyers served a copy of the legal papers to her office yesterday evening.

On Feb 7, the Court of Appeal affirmed a 2017 High Court ruling and the RM150,000 in damages to the now opposition leader.

Justice Darryl Goon, who delivered the judgment of the three-member bench, said the trial judge had taken the impugned statement in the right context, including taking into account the analogy and the figure of speech employed to conclude it was defamatory.

Khairy, who was Umno Youth leader at the time, made the remarks during a ceramah at Lembah Pantai during the 2008 general election campaign.

On Jan 17, lawyer Gopal Sri Ram submitted to the Court of Appeal that Khairy defamed Anwar in front of a Malay crowd by depicting him as a homosexual and a person of low morals.

He said Khairy was addressing a crowd who understood the context in which the reference against Anwar was made.

In a statement of claim, Anwar said Khairy had uttered that the then opposition coalition comprising PAS, DAP and PKR, “undergoes mutaah marriage as practised by the Shia sect.”

“They marry at night and divorce the following day to legitimise a vice. PAS plays DAP from the left and DAP plays PAS from the right. Anwar plays both from the back.”

He said Khairy was also addressing a Muslim crowd who belonged to the Shafii sect and reference was made to the Shia sect which is regarded as a deviant group in this country. - FMT