PETALING JAYA: Sungai Besar Umno chief Jamal Yunos has complied with a Court of Appeal order by paying the solicitors for DAP’s Teresa Kok RM300,000, the sum awarded to her by the High Court as damages in a defamation lawsuit.
Lawyer SN Nair, who represents the Seputeh MP, said a cheque for the sum was delivered to his firm by one of Jamal’s lawyers on April 14.
“Jamal has complied with the Court of Appeal order,” he told FMT.
On March 29, the Court of Appeal held there were merits in Jamal’s bid to stay the judgment pending his appeal and granted him a conditional stay of the judgment.
However, Justice Yaacob Sam, who led a three-member bench ordered Jamal to deposit the judgment sum into the client’s account of Kok’s solicitors, SN Nair & Partners, within 21 days from March 29.
The law firm is required to hold the judgment sum in trust pending disposal of the appeal.
Last year, the High Court ordered Jamal to pay RM300,000 in damages and an additional RM50,000 in costs to Kok, after finding him liable for defamation.
Judicial commissioner Arief Imran Arifin said Jamal’s remarks at a press conference held on March 8, 2017 were “intended to attack the plaintiff (Kok) personally and in her professional capacity as an MP and a politician”.
Jamal had claimed Kok embezzled money from the Selangor state fund, Yayasan Warisan Anak Selangor.
In her lawsuit, Kok contended that Jamal’s remarks gave the impression she had misused state funds and was an unethical person.
She later filed a bankruptcy notice against Jamal after he failed to pay up on the judgment sum. Jamal was required to pay the sum within 14 days from July 26, 2022.
Nair today said the petition before a Shah Alam High Court had also been stayed pending the outcome of Jamal’s appeal in the Court of Appeal.
He said a case management would be held on May 10 during which a date for the hearing of the appeal was likely to be fixed.