Justice Prasad Sandosham Abraham, along with Justices Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Asmabi Mohamad, dismissed the Malay daily’s appeal on the High Court award.

“We made the order for the interest of 5 per cent to be paid to start from the date of judgment of the High Court (October 19, 2015),” he said.

The court also awarded cost of RM5,000 to Anwar.

During submissions, Utusan’s lawyer Wan Azmir Wan Majid said the court had failed to consider Anwar’s previous convictions when assessing the damages.

However Latheefa Koya, representing Anwar, argued that there was no error in law during the assessment and that the court was right in ruling out previous convictions.

Last year, Justice Hue Siew Kheng awarded Anwar RM200,000 in general and aggravated damages.

On January 2013, the then High Court judge Justice V. T, Singham – who has since passed away — ruled that Utusan had defamed him in two articles on an interview he had with BBC.