Defamation: Court of Appeal orders Guan Eng pay RM250k to Azeez

The Court of Appeal ordered former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng to pay RM250,000 to former Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim over a defamation suit.

A three-person bench, chaired by Judge Azizah Nawawi and comprising fellow judges Mariana Yahya and Azimah Omar, also ordered Lim (above, right) to pay RM70,000 in costs to Azeez when the bench allowed the Umno veteran's appeal.

Azeez’s appeal targets the Penang High Court's decision on Dec 11, 2020, which dismissed his lawsuit against former finance minister Lim.

Through the civil action filed two years earlier, he claimed that Lim had issued defamatory statements that linked him to an RM3 million consultation fee payment from a developer of the controversial Penang undersea tunnel project.

In reading out the ruling on behalf of the appellate bench today, Azimah ruled that the lower court had erred in allowing Lim's defence of justification, fair comment and qualified privilege over his statement regarding Azeez.

Azimah noted that the bench today ordered Lim to pay RM250,000 in damages because his public statement was made without prior verification with Azeez.

She said that Lim's statement went beyond seeking for the authorities to investigate the issue of alleged wrongdoing over the undersea tunnel project, and imputed that Azeez was involved in the matter.

She also pointed out that part of Lim's statement amounted to "unequivocally and unconditionally declared the appellant had indeed committed the serious act (wrongdoing)", and contained an outright declaration that Azeez "as Umno leader had received payments every time".

"There is no evidence of the respondent (Lim) reaching out to the appellant (Azeez), there was no verification exercise.

"There was hastiness in the respondent publicising the defamatory statement," Azimah said.

She said that Lim did not issue the statement in good faith in the public interest but was made for political interest, in light of the then-upcoming 14th general election (GE14) in 2018.

"The respondent was using this (allegation) as ammo to prove his political point," Azimah said.

‘Should have known better’

She reminded Lim that he should have been aware of the need to seek prior verification and other aspects of defamation law as he was not only a veteran political figure but had been involved in numerous court cases in the past.

Azeez was represented by lawyer Porres Royan while Lim was represented by counsel Felix Lim.

Through the defamation suit, Azeez alleged that the former finance minister made the statements during a press conference at the Penang Chief Minister’s Office on Feb 28, 2018, as well as during a Chinese New Year open house hosted by the Penang Development Corporation on the same day.

He sought general and exemplary damages and other relief deemed fit by the court. - Mkini