The Federal Court allowed the government's application for leave to appeal to strike out Lawyers for Liberty’s (LFL) two lawsuits over Singapore's attempt to enforce its anti-fake news law against the group.
Following the greenlight by the three-person bench chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Judge Abdul Rahman Sebli this morning, the apex court will later hear the merits of the appeal on another date.
One suit targeted Singapore Home Minister K Shanmugam, while the other civil action targeted the Malaysian government.
In January 2020, Singapore attempted to enforce its Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 (Pofma) against LFL after the group published online the details of Malaysian prisoners being allegedly executed brutally and unlawfully at Changi Prison earlier that same month.
On July 20 last year, the Court of Appeal overturned an earlier High Court ruling that allowed the government to strike out LFL’s lawsuits without the matter being heard on their merits.
The government then approached Federal Court.
During online apex court proceedings today, Rahman said that leave to appeal is allowed as the matter involved the issue of whether the Malaysian courts have the jurisdiction to hear a case involving sovereign immunity.
Thus, he said the matter has passed the threshold of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act - which states that leave to appeal is only to be given if the matter raises novel issues of law.
The other members of the apex bench are Federal Court judges Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.
The two main legal actions are still pending before the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
LFL is suing Shanmugam over the Singapore government’s issuance of a “correction direction” under Pofma against the group.
LFL’s second suit seeks to restrain the Malaysian government from assisting Singapore in enforcing Pofma against the NGO.
Singapore's Pofma correction order is meant to compel an offending party to make a correction notice for publications deemed false or erroneous and also provide access to the correct facts.
In LFL's case, the Singapore government had in 2020 claimed that the group's allegation of Malaysian prisoners being executed in a purportedly brutal and unlawful fashion at Changi Prison on Jan 16 that year contained “false statements of fact”.
Singapore’s Home Ministry had called the claims “untrue, baseless, and preposterous allegations”, adding that all judicial executions in the state were carried out in strict compliance with the law. - Mkini
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