Court rules Pua entitled to damages after Najib dropped defamation suit
The Court of Appeal also sets aside the injunction obtained by the ex-prime minister and orders an assessment of damages in favour of Tony Pua.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Court of Appeal here has allowed Damansara MP Tony Pua to receive damages after the High Court last year allowed former prime minister Najib Razak to withdraw his defamation suit over the tabling of the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Bill or RUU 355.
A three-member bench chaired by Hamid Sultan Abu Backer said the High Court should have proceeded to award Pua damages over an injunction obtained by Najib pending the outcome of his suit.
Najib had given an undertaking to the court that he would pay damages if the injunction was set aside.
Trial judge Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab on July 30 last year allowed Najib to withdraw his main suit. The judge then ordered Najib to pay Pua RM30,000 in costs for withdrawing the suit.
However, Hamid, who sat with judges Hanipah Farikullah and Lau Bee Lan, said the High Court should have proceeded to set aside the injunction and assess damages in favour of Pua.
The bench today set aside the injunction obtained. It also awarded Pua RM10,000 in costs for the appeal.
In addition, it ordered the High Court to assess the damages suffered by Pua when the injunction was made in favour of Najib.
Pua’s lawyer Surendra Ananth later told reporters that once the main suit fell, the injunction had collapsed as well.
“As such, Pua was entitled to damages arising from the injunction obtained by Najib pending the outcome of the defamation suit,” he said.
On April 21, 2017, Najib sued Pua in his personal capacity, alleging that Pua had made defamatory statements against him in a video relating to the tabling of a private member’s bill to amend RUU 355.
Najib claimed the two-minute, 21-second video clip uploaded on Pua’s Facebook page entitled “BN Govt abandons all Bills to give precedence to PAS’ RUU355 Private Member’s Bill” could be accessed widely and freely on the internet.
He also claimed the video contained words referring specifically to him and implying that he had abused his power by giving orders through the Cabinet to the Dewan Rakyat speaker to give way to Marang MP Abdul Hadi Awang to propose the bill.
In his video, Pua had said that the tabling of the bill was a charade to divert attention from the 1MDB fiasco and the RM2.6 billion found in Najib’s private account.
On Aug 4, 2017, Zaki dismissed Pua’s application for the video to remain on his Facebook page to be viewed by the public pending the outcome of Najib’s defamation suit.
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On Feb 14 last year, the Court of Appeal upheld Zaki’s injunction ruling on grounds that investigation agencies and the Attorney-General’s Chambers had cleared Najib of any criminal wrongdoing.