1MDB: Kit Siang's statement imputed guilt to Apandi, Court of Appeal hears

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang’s statement imputed guilt on the part of former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali over alleged involvement in covering up the 1MDB affair, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Counsel Rueben Mathiavaranam acting for Apandi (above, left) who is appealing in a defamation suit against the veteran politician, submitted that the respondent’s 2019 article directly implicated the appellant of wrongdoing.

The lawyer told the three-person appellate bench, chaired by Judge Hadhariah Syed Ismail, that the severe imputation is not something that can be covered by Lim’s defence of justification and qualified privilege over the statement.

“The words complained of amounted to a positive assertion of the plaintiff’s guilt in an offence or wrongdoing,” Rueben told the bench, which included judges M Gunalan and Azmi Ariffin.

The lawyer said that Lim had not provided a “jot of evidence” to back the allegation that Apandi assisted the perpetrators of 1MDB by lending himself to cover up wrongdoing and abuse the role of attorney-general.

Under the law, justification is a defence that the statements or allegations are factual and, if proven successfully in court, this would act as an absolute defence against the defamation action.

Qualified privilege is a defence that applies in a situation where the words are issued by a person who has an interest, or a legal, social, or moral duty to do so.

Rueben today added that the High Court - in dismissing Apandi’s lawsuit against Lim - had erred, because the then attorney-general had not actually closed the case against then sitting prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in January 2016.

The lawyer explained that Apandi had instead returned the investigating papers to the authorities for further probe.

Thus the lawyer pointed out that Apandi’s decision then was based on evidence available and gathered by the authorities, and this is why Najib was only charged in court in 2018.

Ex-PM Najib Abdul Razak

Rueben pointed out that in 2018, more evidence had come to light during the tenure of Tommy Thomas, who took over the attorney-general’s post from Apandi that year.

Apandi’s appeal is against the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 23 last year to dismiss his defamation suit over Lim’s article written earlier on May 6, 2019.

The appellant claimed that the article implied, among others, that he was involved in the 1MDB financial scandal, was a person with no morals and integrity, was unethical, and had abused his power when he was attorney-general from July 27, 2015, to June 4, 2018.

Article on Dewan Rakyat speaker

However, during proceedings before the appellate court today, Lim’s counsel Sangeet Kaur Deo submitted that the impugned 2019 article was over Pandikar Amin Mulia - who was Dewan Rakyat speaker between April 2008 and May 2018 - who did not allow parliamentary debate over Apandi’s decision not to meaningfully investigate the 1MDB affair.

Sangeet pointed out that Lim’s statement was rightly safeguarded by the defence of justification as the words were not a personal attack on Apandi.

The lawyer added that the DAP veteran’s words were set against the context of the 2015 sacking of then attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail over prosecutors’ allegedly preparing draft criminal charges against then-sitting premier Najib.

The Court of Appeal has fixed Oct 10 to deliver its decision over Apandi’s appeal.

In her 100-page judgment, High Court judge Azimah Omar - who was elevated to the Court of Appeal earlier this year - ruled that Lim was justified in his statement urging Apandi to answer why he had absolved Najib over the 1MDB affair.

She also noted that it was strikingly evident that Apandi showed disinterest and indifference to the elementary rule of law and even common sense, as seen by the then AG refusing MLA from the Swiss authorities in relation to the 1MDB probe.

Former finance minister Najib is serving a 12-year jail sentence over an RM42 million corruption case linked to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB that later became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).

Najib is also undergoing the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial before the criminal court in Kuala Lumpur.  - Mkini